The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) created PMP InterConnect to facilitate sharing data across state borders to authorized users, offering some promise of more efficient use of resources.Įvidence that PDMPs have been effective-when properly funded and if the relevant data is timely-has built a strong case for PDMPs to grow in importance. Problems with standardizing data formats and sharing information across state lines are among several challenges still facing efficient use of these programs. Today, most states are mandating use of PDMPs, though in some, funding the operations to make them effective and timely has been a barrier. The state of New York passed the I-STOP law (Internet System for Tracking Over-Prescribing) to mandate PDMP use by August 2013, and electronic prescribing of controlled substances (EPCS) by the end of 2014. By June 2012, 49 states and one territory had passed PDMP legislation and 41 states had an operating PDMP. In 2010, Brandeis University received a grant through a division of the Department of Justice to fund a PMP Center of Excellence at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management to provide practice-relevant information, evaluation, and expertise to PDMPs and their stakeholders, including the development of best practices. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has no role in managing these state programs. Since then, an Alliance of State Prescription Monitoring Programs was formed, the program has become electronic, and the schedules have expanded, though each state may still incorporate some variations. The only focus at that time was Schedule II drugs. The aggregated reports and, where relevant, PDMP investigations, focused on prescribers selling prescriptions, pharmacies selling controlled substances illegally, and organized doctor-shopping rings. All of these early PDMPs were coordinated with paper and/or faxes. By 1989, only nine states had PDMPs, though Hawaii started collecting data in 1943 (before it was a state). California began a PDMP in 1939, and other states developed similar programs throughout the 1940s and ’50s. As early as 1918, New York mandated that pharmacists report prescriptions for cocaine, codeine, heroin, morphine, and opium to the health department within 24 hours. The first programs have been in place in some states longer than you may think. History of Prescription Monitoring Programs

The data is used to support states’ efforts in education, research, enforcement, and abuse prevention. PDMPs consist of electronic databases that collect, monitor, and analyze electronically transmitted prescribing and dispensing data submitted by pharmacies.

PDMPs, or prescription drug monitoring programs (sometimes shortened to PMP), were created by individual state legislation years ago to reduce prescription drug abuse and diversion.

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