Providers in Massachusetts who prescribe painkillers and other addictive drugs will soon be able to access a multistate database containing drug prescription information from neighboring states in an effort to curb drug abuse, reports The Boston Globe.
Massachusetts' Department of Public Health chose to participate in the system, which links prescription monitoring programs in many states, making it harder for people who abuse drugs to get prescriptions from other states without being detected, according to the report.
Prescriptions for controlled substances are noted in states' Prescription Monitoring Program. The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy created the PMP InterConnect, which shares data between states' prescription monitoring programs.
Crossing borders for new drug prescriptions is especially an issue in small states. "In a geographically small state, people cross borders all the time," said Dennis Dimitri, MD, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, in the report. "If you are practicing on the border of Rhode Island or New Hampshire, you don't know if patients are getting a prescription from a doctor just a few miles away."
Massachusetts joins 30 other states using PMP InterConnect. Providers in the state should have access to the information within two months, pending the establishment of an online connection to the database, according to the report.
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