Qlik, the data and analytics company based in King of Prussia, is partnering with Jefferson Health to help reduce patients’ exposure to prescription painkillers and thus curb the misuse of opioids, writes Queen Muse for Philadelphia magazine.

Together, Qlik and Jefferson have used key data insights to pinpoint situations where fewer opioids can be prescribed for a shorter time.

“Tools like Qlik are very good at quickly aggregating millions of transactions to help find trends and define the norm,” said Bob Dawes, a partner at CompassRed, a data and analytics firm.

For example, standard guidelines suggest a maximum three-day prescription of opioids for patients being discharged from the emergency ward. However, Jefferson discovered the default setting in its electronic system allowed physicians to write prescriptions for seven, 14, or 21 days, resulting in many patients receiving prescriptions for longer than necessary.

Working with Qlik, Jefferson adjusted those settings to limit the prescription to just three days. Within a month, Jefferson had recorded a 50 percent decrease in excessive prescriptions of pain medication.

Read more about the partnership in Philadelphia magazine here.

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