CredibleMeds Launches Mobile App to Expand Access to Online QTdrugs Database

Tucson, Ariz., February 15, 2017 - CredibleMeds, the internationally recognized authority on drugs that increase the risk of heart arrhythmia and sudden death, has released a free mobile application to make its online QTdrugs database instantly available for healthcare providers and patients. The IOS, Android and Windows Mobile compatible app is an easy-to-use platform for guiding the safe use of medications, helping users reduce the risk of drug-induced arrhythmias and cardiac arrest.

CredibleMeds analyzes all available clinical evidence and places drugs into categories based on their risk for prolonging the QT interval on the electrocardiogram and thereby developing the potentially life-threatening heart arrhythmia known as torsades de pointes (TdP). The CredibleMeds online database, known as QTdrugs, lists over 130 of these high-risk QT-prolonging medicines and another 85 that carry this risk under certain clinical conditions.  High-risk patients, such as those with heart disease, electrolyte imbalance or inherited long QT, work closely with their healthcare providers and use the QTdrugs database to manage their choices of medications. The development of a mobile option for the QTdrugs lists will greatly expand access to this critical information for use within the medical community.

When prescribing or evaluating medications for patients, healthcare providers can now readily inform their drug choices and medical decisions.  For patients who wish to avoid medicines with this potential toxicity, especially patients with inherited long QT syndrome, they now can have a ready resource, be more informed and actively participate in their medical decisions.  The app has an advanced search feature so users can easily look up any medication that is presented in the usual “Tdp Risk Categories,” or “Drugs to Avoid” format for those with inherited Long QT.

The new CredibleMeds application was created for CredibleMeds by a talented programmer, Keith Symmonds, who personally has the rare inherited form of long QT syndrome (LQTS). His technical expertise, coupled with a desire to have a mobile database of potentially harmful medications for LQTS patients made this innovative, mobile-friendly resource possible.

The CredibleMeds mobile app can be obtained in the Apple App Store (iOS), Google Play (Android devices) and the Windows Mobile Device store.

CredibleMeds also developed a Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) for healthcare providers to prevent excessive QT prolongation with antibiotics known to have a risk of QT prolongation under a contract with the US Food and Drug Administration’s Safe Use Initiative.  The goal of this quality improvement program is to alert healthcare providers when a newly prescribed drug may present a risk of a serious cardiac adverse event for a specific patient.  “Today the amount of medical information and data that must be managed by prescribers and patients is overwhelming and cannot be memorized,” says Dr. Raymond Woosley, founder and President of the non-profit, AZCERT, that maintains the CredibleMeds website.  Dr. John Whyte, Director of the FDA’s Safe Use Initiative said “We are pleased to work with AZCERT and CredibleMeds to help equip the medical community with this practical tool that may reduce preventable harm from prescribed medications.”