Implementation of the SAFEST project
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The purpose of the project is to establish a single source of structured pharmaceutical information that supports the needs in hospitals. The information should be electronically accessible through a query interface for use in clinical systems.
Background
As of now, hospitals in Norway do not have access to a single common source of structured pharmaceutical information for use in clinical systems. The implementation of electronic health records and the summary care record (Kjernejournal) has progressed significantly. The Norwegian Medicinal Products Agency currently provides structured quality-assured pharmaceutical information for use in e-prescriptions (FEST). Everyone prescribing an e-prescription must use FEST as the foundational source. This also includes some decision support, such as interactions and alerts regarding medication shortages.
Hospitals have several needs and desires for structured pharmaceutical information beyond what FEST for e-prescriptions contains. This is currently partially addressed by complementing and compensating for this regionally, which is resource-intensive.
The purpose of the "SAFEST Implementation" project is to establish and make available a source of structured pharmaceutical information that supports the needs in hospitals. The project covers five areas of need:
- Clear, structured, standardized foundational data about medications (such as strength, form, packaging, etc.).
- Active substance information that supports prescribing based on active substance in electronic health records.
- Product codes at various packaging levels and unit dose supporting, among other things, electronic medicines managment ("lukket legemiddelsløyfe")
- Structured content information in nutritional products supporting, among other things, nutritional tracking.
- Linkage between substances and ATC codes.
The solution should be forward-looking, based on international standards, and capable of further development.
The project works across multiple axes in collaboration with many stakeholders, including the regional health authorities (RHAs), the Directorate of eHealth, and hospital pharmacies.