FDA, ePocrates Team to Bring Safety Alerts to Physician Handhelds
FDA MedWatch, the FDA Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting Program, will partner with ePocrates, a provider of handheld computer software and services for physicians, to deliver safety alerts, drug and product recalls, withdrawals and labeling changes to physicians. Under the new initiative, FDA MedWatch will send messages to physicians via "DocAlerts," which appear on the handhelds of health care professionals using the ePocrates network. The ePocrates network consists of 150,000 physicians and 300,000 other health care professionals. The partnership is expected to make clinically important safety information "easy to use, timely, and available at the point of care," according to MedWatch Medical Director Norman Marks. This is the first time MedWatch has partnered with a handheld network to disseminate clinical safety information (ePocrates release, 7/17).
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