NIC on Wednesday announced the RxGov software platform to apply machine learning to prescription drug monitoring programs in an effort to combat the ongoing opioid epidemic.  

The new platform comes as doctors, hospitals, federal agencies and policymakers are deploying new technologies such as medication monitoring suites, integrating EHRs with state PDMPs and piloting adherence programs, among other techniques. 

NIC said RxGov is a result of the company’s acquisition of the RxOrbit suite from Maryland-based Leap Orbit. NIC has been managing PDMP solutions since 2011, and launched its flagship ePDMP system in Wisconsin in 2017.

[Opioid Crisis: How tech and policy are fighting the epidemic] 

“This solution leverages the PDMP systems NIC currently manages, plus the functionality of the technology we acquired,” NIC’s CEO Harry Herington said in a statement.

Other features of the platform include data transparency, and a unique patient matching algorithm. Specifically, RxGov uses machine learning to match patients’ full names, nicknames and maiden names into a single record to prevent patients from shopping around among doctors to obtain prescriptions. 

The platform also integrates with EHRs and features platform-as-a-service, or PaaS, option hosted on Microsoft Azure.

Before the acquisition, Leap Orbit’s technology had been part of a pilot program with the state of Maryland since 2017. The Texas Hospital Association last week kicked off a pilot test of IllumiCare’s new Controlled Substance app that combines prescription tracking data for controlled substance into one place, and in mid-July UNC Health Care announced work to integrate its Epic EHR with the state’s PDMP.

Twitter: @Bernie_HITN
Email the writer: bernie.monegain@himssmedia.com