All 305 community pharmacies in the province are now connected to the Drug Information System, allowing pharmacists, doctors and other authorized health-care providers to access information about a patient’s medication history.

“Health-care providers will have more medication information available to them, which means improved safety and better quality care for patients,” said Health and Wellness Minister Leo Glavine. “The Drug Information System is another important tool that helps us to protect Nova Scotians by reducing opportunities for prescription drug misuse.”

A patient’s medication information includes filled prescriptions as well as medication-related allergies, adverse reactions and medical conditions.

The Drug Information System also helps to prevent prescription drug diversion, by providing prescription information to the Nova Scotia Prescription Monitoring Program.

The system was introduced in 2011 and the first pharmacy was connected in November 2013. Since then, the system has collected data on more than 17 million records, for more than 700,000 Nova Scotians.

This completes the first phase of the Drug Information System implementation project. The second phase is underway and expands access to other health-care providers in the community and hospitals. The third phase will connect the system with the electronic medical records system in physician offices.

The cost of the Drug Information System project is $27.1 million. The project is cost-shared, with the province investing $17.5 million, and Canada Health Infoway investing $9.6 million.

Source: Release