NEW DRUG DATABASE MINIMIZES INACCURATE DOSAGES TO PATIENTS

PEPID'S Portable System Contains Specific Information on 1600 Prescriptions, Over-the-Counter and Herbal Medicines

Evanston, Illinois-March 5, 2002-PEPID, LLC, the premier developer of handheld decision support tools for the medical community, today announced the release of PEPID PDC, (Portable Drug Companion), a point-of-care decision support tool with information on 1600 drugs. PEPID is the current market leader in providing medical databases for personal digital assistants (PDAs), delivering downloadable tools for emergency physicians, MDs, registered nurses, medical students, emergency medical services personnel and pharmacology professionals.

PEPID PDC contains complete dosing, adverse drug reactions, interactions and overdose management information for over 1600 drugs, herbal remedies, and over-the-counter medications. Additionally, PEPIDs Toxicology section provides the most complete drug reference on the market.

PEPID PDC is a uniquely valuable decision support tool used at the point-of-care to reduce the risk of medication errors, allowing for improved patient care and practice efficiency. It is the only downloadable drug database that incorporates a weight-based and body surface area-based dosing calculator with the drug information. In addition to the dosing calculators, PEPID has added an SI (International System of Units) and Metric unit calculator to convert to conventional units, and a Canadian drug name to generic substitute look-up feature.

A recent Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) report found that medication errors are most common in pediatric inpatient settings, and further efforts are needed to reduce them. The study discovered that over a six-week period, close to 600 medical mistakes were made in the dosage orders of 11,000 underage patients. The analysis concluded that the majority of errors could have been prevented by computerized drug-allergy, drug-dose and drug-drug interaction checks. http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v285n16/abs/joc01942.html

"All patients stand to benefit by the use of this device by their doctors. It will save time and eliminate physician drug errors, particularly among children. It will be a life saver in the pediatrics divisions of hospitals nationwide," said PEPID CEO and Founder Mark Rosenbloom, MD. "The development of clinical databases and tools published to handheld devices is the next generation of clinical decision support," added Rosenbloom.

PEPID currently offers six decision support tools which are downloadable to Windows PC, laptop or to a handheld device and are sold on a monthly subscription basis of 6, 12, or 24 months. Incremental updates are posted on the PEPID website monthly providing healthcare professionals with subscriptions the most current, up-to-date information at their fingertips.

With the continuing proliferation of PDAs, we believe that systems and protocols developed by healthcare professionals to improve patient care, reduce medical errors, and increase efficiency will begin to include the utilization of PDA-based reference programs, like PEPID PDC," said PEPID President and Publisher, Tom Manning. PEPID PDC's drug content was created by a consortium of pharmacists, physicians and pharmacologists, headed by Frank Paloucek, Director of Residency Programs College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois. The content is reviewed by the American Society of Healthcare System Pharmacists.
            
About PEPID
PEPID, the Portable Emergency and Primary Care Information Database, is designed to assist in the reduction of medical errors and improve patient outcomes. It provides healthcare professionals access to the most comprehensive, accurate and current pharmacological and clinical information at the point-of-care via personal data assistants (PDA's). PEPID was founded in 1994 by Dr. Mark Rosenbloom, a Board-Certified Emergency Physician at Northwestern University School of Medicine. PEPID covers medical and trauma topics typically encountered in emergency and primary care settings. For more information visit us on the web at www.pepid.com or contact John Wagner, Sr. Vice President of Business Development, at jwagner@pepid.com or 888-321-7828 ext 203.

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