Moorestown, NJ, May 27, 2020 – Tabula Rasa HealthCare® (NASDAQ: TRHC), a healthcare technology company advancing the field of medication safety, announces the journal Pharmacy has published its research article “Association of a Novel Medication Risk Score with Adverse Drug Events and Other Pertinent Outcomes Among Participants of the Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly”.
The research article is a 12-month analysis of medical claims data of 1,965 Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE ) participants by TRHC’s Precision Pharmacotherapy Research & Development Institute to determine their MedWise Risk Score™ (MRS). TRHC’s MedWise Risk Score ™ helps identify those at highest risk for Adverse Drug Events (ADEs), requiring immediate medication management attention. Adverse Drug Events, if it were a disease, would be the third leading cause of death in the United States.
The study concludes that a significant positive correlation exists between the MRS and various outcomes, including emergency department visits, all-cause hospital admissions, and hospital length of stay. Each point increase in the MRS corresponds to $1,037 in additional annual medical spend, three additional emergency department visits per 100 participants per year, and two additional hospitalizations per 100 participants per year.
“I cannot imagine caring for frail elderly patients any longer without having access to this information,” said David Wensel DO, FAAHPM, HMDC, Chief Medical Officer at Midland Care, a Kansas PACE organization. “It has changed the way I prescribe medications and will soon be the standard of care for anyone caring for frail patients who take multiple medications. Using the MRS with the help of our clinical pharmacist, who is a valuable member of our interdisciplinary team, has certainly saved the lives of many of our patients.”
“A majority of Adverse Drug Events are preventable,” states TRHC Chairman and CEO Calvin H. Knowlton, PhD. “A clinical decision tool that analyzes simultaneous, multi-drug risk for ADEs demonstrably enhances economical, clinical, and humanistic outcomes – including saving lives. Our MedWise Risk Score gives pharmacists and physicians a critical assessment tool to identify and mitigate relevant medication risk, keeping patients safer and healthier.”
In a 2018 study of PACE clinicians who use the MedWise Risk Score, 94% would recommend its use by pharmacists and physicians. In the same study, 84% believe that it helps them provide better care, in collaboration with their clinical pharmacist counterparts.
TRHC’s Medical Director Ankur Patel, MD, offered, “As a previous PACE Medical Director, I used the MedWise Risk Score regularly to inform the care I provided to my patients. Additionally, the MRS empowered me to practice proactive care versus reactive care and served as a guide in making clinical decisions about patients with polypharmacy to prevent adverse drug events.”
TRHC Chief Scientific Officer Jacques Turgeon, PhD adds, “Our team of researchers and scientists are continuously innovating and validating our medication safety tools. This study is just one example of how our technology and science produce actionable information that pharmacists can easily use to reduce the risk of Adverse Drug Events.”
Forward-Looking Statement
This press release includes forward-looking statements that we believe to be reasonable as of today’s date. Such statements are identified by use of the words “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “predicts,” “projects,” “should,” and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s expectations and assumptions as of the date of this press release. These forward-looking statements include, among other things, our goals and expectations regarding the combined company and the integration of PW into TRHC, the expected synergies from the combined company and the expected financial and operating performance of TRHC following the completion of the acquisition. Actual results might differ materially from those explicit or implicit in the forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include: the risk that we may not be able to achieve our expectations for the combined companies due to challenges in integration and inability to retain key employees; fluctuations in our financial results; the acceptance and use of our products and services by PACE organizations and pharmacies; the need to innovate and provide useful products and services; risks related to changing healthcare and other applicable regulations; our ability to maintain relationships with a specified drug wholesaler; increasing consolidation in the healthcare industry; managing our growth effectively; our ability to adequately protect our intellectual property; the requirements of being a public company; our ability to recognize the expected benefits from acquisitions on a timely basis or at all; and the other risk factors set forth from time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including those factors discussed under the caption “Risk Factors” in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on March 2, 2020, and in subsequent reports filed with or furnished to the SEC, copies of which are available free of charge within the Investor Relations section of the TRHC website ir.trhc.com or upon request from our Investor Relations Department. TRHC assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law, to reflect events or circumstances occurring after today’s date.