HOSPITALS
FOUNDED BY A pharmacist at UC San Francisco in the late 1970s , First Databank is a publisher of drug information . This includes several different elements , including everything from ingredient level , pricing , package size and drug interaction — all of which is beneficial in a medication prescribing setting .
But FDB has increasingly evolved into a tech company creating developer tools and web applications . Its content is often wrapped in software tool kits , and can be offered as a web service .
“ At our core , we ’ re about the information and careguidance around medications , but we ’ re increasingly working with technology solutions that reduce the implementation barrier for vendors ,” said George Robinson , senior product manager of Interoperability at First Databank . “ The primary difference is we
typically have not tried to own the ultimate end user application that we ’ re providing content and tools for a developer to build that in a manner that meets unique needs of a user .”
Data is key FDB ’ s data is very useful in a prescribing setting , as it is licensed by customers programmed to the data in various ways . It could be a financer such as an insurance company using the data to adjudicate a claims process , or an inpatient hospital information systems vender creating a software program .
Each of FDB ’ s system vendors are customers — which include highprofile companies such as Epic , MEDITECH , McKesson , Siemens and others . These large hospital system venders then code FDB ’ s information into their systems .
“ We publish the data in various
“ At our core , we ’ re about the information and careguidance around medications , but we ’ re increasingly working with technology solutions that reduce the implementation barrier for vendors .”
– George Robinson , senior product manager of Interoperability at First Databank .
8 March 2016