Baton Rouge tech firm Envoc is moving in on the battle against the opioid epidemic. Envoc developers have built onto their LA Wallet platform to launch a prescription drug monitoring software.
“This isn’t the answer to the opioid problem, but it could be a valuable tool in helping combat it,” investor Alton Ashy says.
The software uses the same technology found in Envoc’s LA Wallet app that can scan a person’s driver’s license and verify their identity in real time. Ashy says the company hopes to have the software in every U.S. pharmacy, the most effective way to ensure its effectiveness across state lines.
It aims to fill a blind spot that exists in prescription drug monitoring, Envoc’s Calvin Fabre says.
The current prescription database tracks how many and how often opioid prescriptions are written at the provider level, but it typically takes between 24 and 48 hours to update—and even that is on a state-by-state basis.
That system doesn’t stop someone from filling an opioid prescription at one pharmacy, then going across the street to another pharmacy and filling the same prescription, Ashy says.
Envoc’s software steps in at the dispensing level in real time, notifying pharmacists if someone attempting to fill an opioid prescription has already picked one up within the last 24 or 48 hours, Fabre says. Even if they’ve filled one in the Missouri side of Kansas City, then attempted another on the Kansas side.
All of this is done while maintaining patient confidentiality, under HIPPA guidelines, he says.
It’s not the end-all solution, but it’s a deterrent, Fabre says.
The software just got out of beta testing at two independently owned pharmacies in Gramercy and Reserve. Kyle Joiner, Envoc’s lead mobile developer, says the two locations scanned about 1,600 licenses between Oct. 8 and Jan. 29—though most of those were from only one location due to internet connectivity issues at the second.
Of those scans, the software flagged 26 possible duplicates. Some of those were reported only a few minutes apart, so they could be the result of one person picking up medications for multiple family members. Other flags were reported eight to 10 hours apart, Joiner says.
Ashy says he’s been meeting with state attorneys general from all over the country—including Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry—and received a positive response. He’s also discussed the software with those involved in the national opioid litigation out of Cleveland.
“The big question is … whether they want to make it part of a master settlement,” Ashy says, referring to the national opioid lawsuits.
The system itself costs $1,500 to $1,700 to install the hardware, then another $150 to $175 a month to operate, he says.
“For any retail establishment, that’s really insignificant,” he says.
