Ballad Health, a healthcare system, is using AI-based patient safety company MedAware's AI-powered medication safety monitoring platform to allow real-time personalized risk monitoring for acute care patients.

The acute care pharmacy team at Ballad Health is the first to natively employ MedAware within an Epic pharmacy workflow. The two companies have been partners since 2023. 

MedAware's monitoring platform provides a personalized, patient-specific examination of real-time and evolving medication-related risk. 

The platform integrates into existing technology systems, EHRs and devices. 

The multidimensional safety layer permits organizations to make use of the robust dataset within their pharmacy and EHR systems. 

MedAware combines proprietary and novel machine learning algorithms with statistical and clinical review to allow acute care pharmacists and clinical care teams to proactively intervene with medication dose changes, therapy changes or continued monitoring before harm is done. 

Ballad Health has embedded MedAware's clinical decision support logic as a 24-7 surveillance tool within their Epic workflow to recognize developing risks of medication-related harm while a patient is in the hospital. 

Additionally, acute care pharmacists at Ballad have access to personalized, patient-specific medication-related risks that allows them to identify at-risk patients by acuity level rapidly, better prioritize patient care and drive efficiencies with clinical rounding.

"We are proud to be at the forefront of innovation in medication safety by deploying MedAware's AI-driven solutions," Trish Tanner, chief pharmacy officer for Ballad Health, said in a statement.

"This technology has the potential to make a profound impact on patient safety and outcomes while also driving real efficiencies in the way pharmacy delivers care. By leveraging MedAware's platform, we are taking a proactive approach towards delivering all our patients the highest standard of care." 

David Franklin, CEO of MedAware, noted that Ballad Health is an organization that shares MedAware's vision of elevating the practice of pharmacy.  

"Our work with monitoring innovation is set to dramatically improve outcomes and enable pharmacy teams to do more, more safely," Franklin said in a statement.

THE LARGER TREND

In 2018, MedAware announced a partnership with Allscripts designed to bring its medication decision support product to the latter company’s EHR system. As a result, providers choosing a prescription for their patients in a live setting will receive notifications concerning medication-related risks, such as adverse drug events or opioid dependency, and can amend their recommendation if deemed necessary.

In 2017, MedAware raised $8 million. BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), Gefen Capital,  OurCrowd and Yingcheng City Fubon Technology Company participated in the Series A round. In addition to the $8 million in venture funds, MedAware received $4 million in grants from Israel’s Innovation Authority, the BIRD Foundation, and the European Commission.