News Article

10-12-2017

Patient drug use data at your fingertips

Every time Dr. Gina Huhnke writes a prescription for opioids, she first consults a number in the patient’s electronic health record.

That number, a risk score that providers can use to gauge a patient’s risk for a substance-use disorder, tells her whether she should prescribe the drug or instead have a conversation about drug addiction.

“Sometimes even the patients themselves are surprised,” said Huhnke, director of medical affairs and emergency medicine at Deaconess Health System, based in Evansville, Ind.