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Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP)

Award Information

Award #
2012-PM-BX-0011
Location
Congressional District
Status
Closed
Funding First Awarded
2012
Total funding (to date)
$400,000

Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2012, $400,000)

Beginning in FY 2002, Congress appropriated funding to the U.S. Department of Justice to support the Harold Rogers Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP). Prescription monitoring programs help prevent and detect the diversion and abuse of pharmaceutical controlled substances, particularly at the retail level where no other automated information collection system exists. States that have implemented prescription monitoring programs have the capability to collect and analyze prescription data much more efficiently than states without such programs, where the collection of prescription information requires the manual review of pharmacy files, a time-consuming and invasive process.

The Prescription Drug Monitoring Program assists states as they plan, implement, or enhance a PDMP to: build a state-level data collection and analysis system to enhance the capacity of regulatory and law enforcement agencies and public health officials for future prevention efforts; enhance existing programs' abilities to analyze and use collected data to identify drug abuse trends, identify and address sources of diversion, and increase the number of users of the PDMP; facilitate and participate in national evaluation efforts to assess efficiency and effectiveness; encourage and implement the exchange of information under the PMIX Architecture among states to prevent cross-border diversion; assess the efficiency and effectiveness of state-level programs to make improvements and encourage additional states to implement programs; enhance collaborations with law enforcement, prosecutors, treatment professionals, the medical community, pharmacies, and regulatory boards to establish a comprehensive PDMP strategy; enable federally recognized Indian tribal governments to establish the policy, legal, and technological infrastructure to share PDMP data from health care facilities with the appropriate state PDMP.

The states' goals are to improve the monitoring of controlled substances; BJA supported the development of consensus-based, national standards to enable the interstate sharing of PDMP data. These standards and related operational guidelines have been referred to as the PMIX Specifications. Concurrently, in response to the needs of states, BJA supported the implementation of an operational interstate data sharing hub, known as the RXCheck to implement the PMIX Specifications and successfully piloted this operational solution. The National PMIX Architecture now provides a framework within which states share data seamlessly back and forth across state borders regardless of their chosen technical solution.

The grant recipient will use the implementation grant to directly link healthcare providers, pharmacies, pharmacists, law enforcement, and licensing boards with a prescription drug monitoring data system and engage these groups in requesting accounts for using the system. Grant funds will provide data and allow for law enforcement officials investigating crimes to receive patient prescription data. In addition, the prescription drug monitoring system will enable healthcare providers to access patient level controlled substance prescription records and encourage practitioners to communicate with each other, use brief intervention schedule techniques to access substance abuse and encourage referral for treatment when indicated, and provide support for accessing the appropriate management of pain.

The Maryland Department of Health & Mental Hygiene will use their funds to adapt; the information technology infrastructure; procure PDMP data collection services sufficient to support real-time; procure program evaluation services from external researchers; implement educational and training programs/events for prescribers, dispensers, law enforcement and regulatory agencies; and develop and implement continuing medical education programs for healthcare practitioners. CA/NCF

Date Created: August 20, 2012