Integration & Interoperability News

NCPDP Awards $100K in Grant Funding for EHR Data Quality Research

The research grant will be used to provide insights into EHR data quality, focusing on EHRs using the NCPDP/ HL7 Specialty Medication Enrollment Standard.

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By Sarai Rodriguez

- The National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP), a CMS Designated Standards Maintenance Organization, is offering a research grant of more than $100,000 to the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy for EHR data quality research.

The funding will measure data obtained from EHRs using the NCPDP/HL7 Specialty Medication Enrollment Standard and inform any enhancement to the standard and pharmacy workflows.

“The support from the NCPDP Foundation provides a key opportunity to assess data quality and usefulness in the specialty medication area, which is an important and growing area of pharmacy practice,” Terrence Adam, RPh, MD, PhD, associate professor at University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy, said in a press release. “Completing this work in the context of the NCPDP/HL7 Specialty Medication Enrollment standard will provide knowledge to help inform the data standard and pharmacy practice.”

NCPDP/HL7 Specialty Medication Enrollment Standard enables health data exchange of patient demographic data, including prescription and clinical data for pharmacy dispensing of specialty medications.

The standard will facilitate patient enrollment in programs offered by third parties such as hub vendors and pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Additionally, the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy research will assess the frequency at which information provided to specialty pharmacies from EHRs is populated.

The study will evaluate other areas, including the quality of the information received by specialty pharmacies, EHRs using evidence-based data quality framework, and the clinical usefulness of information received by specialty pharmacies.

Additionally, the grant will support the NCPDP Foundation’s strategic plan to enhance patient safety and expand the role of pharmacist, the press release stated.

“Pharmacists, like other care providers, need access to quality patient data to assess medications for appropriateness, effectiveness, and safety to inform clinical decision-making and improve patient care,” explained J.W Hill, MBAHCM, CNED, executive director of the NCPDP Foundation.

“For specialty pharmacy medications, patients with complex or chronic medical conditions can wait days, weeks or longer to get on their treatment regimen,” Hill continued. “The NCPDP/ HL7 Specialty Medication Enrollment Standard can help expedite the process, and this research will uncover the quality of the data obtained through the standard and its usefulness to clinical pharmacists.”

The initiative builds upon other data standard the NCPDP has worked on. In November 2022, NCPDP announced the launch of its National Facilitator Model, which aims to enable public health reporting to strengthen pandemic and epidemic interventions. 

The National Facilitator Model uses the NCPDP Real-Time Prescription Benefit data standards and technology that have facilitated access to real-time pharmacy data. In this use case, the industry standards will allow pharmacies, prescribers, and government agencies to access real-time data regarding prescription, testing, immunization, and other pharmacy data.