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NeoFax Launches Web-Based Software to Help Reduce Neonatal Medication Errors and Streamline Critical Care |
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NeoFax(R) LLC, providers of the most widely used neonatal drug dosing and parenteral nutrition clinical reference tools for physicians, nurses, and pharmacists, today announced the availability of NeoFax WebApp, the new browser-based software application. NeoFax WebApp enables medical professionals to accurately prescribe, compound, and administer life-saving drugs and parenteral nutrition solutions to critically ill infants.
Neonatal drug dosing and parenteral nutrition ordering are among the most complex and error prone in medicine today. In the United States, commercially available drugs and nutrition products are not tested on babies, so that as many as 98% of drugs prescribed to babies are prescribed off-label. Doses are extremely small compared to adults, and special concentrations are often needed to measure accurately. The type of medication, as well as the baby's weight, gestational age, and postnatal age, all play a role in determining the proper dose. With 4.3 million babies born in the United States each year and 430,000 premature babies admitted to the neonatal intensive care units, the impact of medication and nutrition errors is critical. NeoFax WebApp was developed to help reduce drug dosing and nutritional errors in this difficult to treat population by providing access to critical, up-to-date information and customizable tools from any web browser in the medical facility.
Lory D. Harte, PharmD, is Manager of Pharmacy Informatics at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, part of a large integrated pediatric delivery system in the Midwest. Dr. Harte commented on the hospital's use of NeoFax WebApp, "At Children's Mercy, we have a 64-bed Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) with very sophisticated technology. We selected NeoFax WebApp to advise our physicians, nurses, and pharmacists on accurate nutrition selection to improve medication and nutrition safety. In addition, it was important to streamline our workflow by putting the ordering tools in the hands of the prescriber, resulting in less pharmacy intervention." Dr Harte added, "The web-based application fits well with our environment by allowing us to access it from anywhere within our facility."
NeoFax co-founder Thomas E. Young, MD, commented, "NeoFax WebApp provides the right info to the right people in the right place - on computers located in Neonatal Intensive Care Units and in supporting hospital locations such as the pharmacy. It provides an easy-to-learn and easy-to-use browser interface that keeps the focus on treatment rather than mathematical calculation." Dr. Young is Senior Neonatologist, WakeMed Faculty Physicians and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, as well as a frequent speaker and organizer of international conferences on neonatal drug therapy.
Barry Mangum, PharmD and co-founder of NeoFax LLC, added, "NeoFax was created out of the need to establish consistency and effectiveness in infant drug and fluid nutrients dosing by physicians, nurses, and pharmacists. With the introduction of NeoFax WebApp, neonatal medical professionals can now conveniently access via their hospital intranet critical reference information and calculators to minimize medication errors." Dr. Mangum is Clinical Associate Professor, Clinical Pharmacology and Clinical Assistant Professor, Pediatrics at Duke University Medical Center and is active in national and global leadership of pediatric clinical research as an educator and thought leader of academic and pharmaceutical industry organizations.
About NeoFax WebApp
NeoFax WebApp provides online drug and parenteral nutrition dosing information, adverse effects, and medical references across a broad range of medicines with a convenient, easy-to-use web browser interface. NeoFax WebApp includes a patient-specific Drug Dosage Calculator which calculates dosing intervals using gestational and postnatal ages, thereby helping reduce medication errors and time for ordering and compounding. Customizable default values and warning ranges and compounding instructions are provided. The Parenteral Nutrition Ordering system includes a pharmacy compounder interface (Baxa and Baxter) and provides nutrient, energy, osmolarity and aluminum calculations along with label printing to reduce time for ordering and compounding total parenteral nutrition (TPN) solutions. It guides order entry and archives TPN order history. NeoFax WebApp complements existing clinical physician order entry (CPOE) systems to assist in critical neonatal care. NeoFax WebApp is available immediately on an annual subscription basis.
About NeoFax LLC
NeoFax LLC provides online and offline clinical reference tools used by physicians, nurses, and pharmacists to correctly prescribe, calculate dosing, formulate, and administer critical drugs and parenteral nutrition solutions for infants. Based in the North Carolina Research Triangle Park area, NeoFax LLC was co-founded by Thomas E. Young, MD, and Barry Mangum, PharmD, the authors and publishers of NeoFax: A Manual of Drugs Used in Neonatal Care. The NeoFax manual has been guiding neonatal medical professionals since 1987 and has evolved into a standard reference in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) around the world, including translated editions published in Spanish, German, Polish, Portuguese, and Chinese. The company's product line also includes versions of the manual for Palm OS and Pocket PC mobile devices and a web browser-based application for calculating neonatal drug doses and ordering parenteral nutrition solutions. For more information, please visit www.neofax.com or call 1.919.786.1155.
NeoFax is a registered trademark of NeoFax LLC. All other trademarks are used for identification purposes only and are the property of their respective owners.
Graphics Available
NeoFax(R) WebApp Drug Dosing Calculator: www.neofax.com/downloadables/media/webapp_drug_dosing_calculator.jpg
NeoFax(R) WebApp Parenteral Nutrition Order: www.neofax.com/downloadables/media/webapp_pn_order.jpg
Premature Infant: www.neofax.com/downloadables/media/Premature_Infant_in_NICU.jpg
Thomas E. Young, MD, NeoFax Co-Founder: www.neofax.com/downloadables/media/Dr_Thomas_E_Young.jpg
Barry Mangum, PharmD, NeoFax Co-Founder: www.neofax.com/downloadables/media/Dr_Barry_Mangum.jpg
Submitted Date: Sep 22, 2006
Source: Business Wire
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