NIH Awards Invistics Grant to Expand Drug Diversion Program in Hospitals

ATLANTA, Oct. 2, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Invistics, the leading provider of advanced healthcare inventory visibility and analytics software, today announced that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded the company a supplementary grant, expanding its drug diversion program. The program leverages machine learning and advanced analytics to detect opioid and drug theft across entire hospitals and systems, improving patient safety, reducing financial risk and protecting healthcare workers.

Invistics has seen early success in Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center and other pilot hospitals, expediting the phase II grant timing and expansion into anesthesiology. The program currently tracks and identifies drug diversion across nursing and pharmacy departments. Studies have found that roughly 10 percent of the nation's nurses, anesthesiologists and pharmacists are currently diverting drugs in their workplaces.

"Piedmont Healthcare is focused on building a strong response to the opioid crisis, and we're extremely proud of our hospital's unique and proactive drug diversion program," said Dr. Charles Peck, president and CEO of Piedmont Athens Regional, which serves as the 11-hospital system's east hub. "Invistics provides us with unprecedented interdepartmental transparency and strategic analysis – they have certainly helped to elevate our program to one of the strongest in the country."

The average mid-size 500-bed hospital has approximately 25 to 75 people at risk for diverting at any time, while only five or fewer diversions are investigated annually, according to studies. According to a recent Porter Research study, 66 percent of respondents felt their programs were neither efficient nor effective, and yet nearly all believe their strategy is on par or better than their peers.

"Opiate theft and other drug diversion is a very real industry threat – one that is incredibly challenging to identify and prevent, and yet directly impacts our ability to ensure the highest quality patient care," said Tom Knight, founder and CEO of Invistics. "With the support of NIH and our hospital partners, we hope providers can proactively prevent drug diversion, something that simply isn't possible solely with manual processes and investigation."

Invistics is a cloud-based solution that enables tracking of opioids and other drugs through the complex pharmaceutical supply chain and offers near real-time intelligence, pulling from thousands of data markers across the entire enterprise. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), an entity of NIH, awarded Invistics the first research grant in 2017, for which the company aggregated data from across the partnering hospital's systems including its medical records, employee time clocks, wholesale purchasing, inventory and dispensing cabinets.

Invistics officially launched its drug detection software to all hospitals and health systems across the U.S. in 2018.

To learn more about the NIH research results and Invistics, visit http://www.invistics.com.

ABOUT INVISTICS
Invistics is the leading provider of cloud-based software solutions for healthcare inventory visibility, providing advanced analytics and actionable insights for hospitals and health systems who want to detect and prevent drug diversion. Invistics' solution, called Flowlytics®, tracks the movement of drugs across the complex supply chain – from the time they are shipped from the wholesaler to a healthcare facility, then each time drugs are moved throughout the hospital and administered to patients.

Atlanta-based Invistics Corporation also provides inventory visibility for manufacturers, distributers, repackagers and controlled substance registrants, helping to reduce inventory costs and compliance risks within a single facility or across the extended enterprise. To learn more, visit http://www.invistics.com.

ABOUT PIEDMONT ATHENS REGIONAL
Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center is a 359-bed non-profit hospital and regional referral center serving a 17-county service area in Athens and northeast Georgia. Piedmont Athens Regional offers a Level 2 Trauma Center and Level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, five Piedmont Urgent Care centers, and an extensive network of respected physicians, surgeons and specialists. Founded by physicians in 1919 as a community hospital, Piedmont Athens Regional became part of Piedmont Healthcare in October 2016 – expanding quality health services to the Athens-Clarke and surrounding communities. The mission of Piedmont Athens Regional is to improve the lives and health of those we touch. As the second largest employer in the region, with over 2,500 employees, Piedmont Athens Regional contributes more than $800 million dollars annually to the economy and has earned national recognition for patient experience and comprehensive care. For more information, visit piedmont.org/athens.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH (NIH)
NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

Research reported was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number 1R44DA044083-01. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Media for Invistics:
Leslie Kirk
lesliekirk(at)innsena.com
678.733.2162

SOURCE Invistics Corporation