NICE launches new BNF prescribing app
pharmafile | June 15, 2012 | News story | Medical Communications, Sales and Marketing | BNF, NICE, app, digital, pharma
NICE has launched a new app that allows users to search all medicines listed in the British National Formulary.
The official NICE BNF app is available to download for free for users of Android and iPhone smartphones – but it will only be available for bona fide healthcare professionals.
NICE said the app would “transform the way people access the BNF” – the most widely used medicines information resource within the NHS.
The BNF already comes in a printed form and is updated twice a year, with a new edition usually coming out every March and September, and is widely used by the InPharm team to help with drug-related news stories.
The new app will be helpful (but unfortunately not for us journalists) as the printed edition is often out of date by the time of publication, as so many new drugs are approved, licences changed or safety recommendations updated.
By having an app this information can be updated more frequently, and is potentially easier for prescribers to carry around.
The app will enable users to browse and search full content from BNF, receive notifications when new editions and updates are available, bookmark content and choose their preferred reading settings.
Once downloaded, the app can be run without an internet connection, meaning that professionals can access the BNF wherever they are.
Users will need to enter their NHS Athens username and password to activate the app and download the content – without this, the content will not be made available.
This is the second app NICE has launched this year – in March the watchdog launched its Guidance app, which allows any user to see all of NICE’s decisions over the past 13 years.
Sir Andrew Dillon, chief executive of NICE, said: “Ensuring staff have access to the latest high quality information to deliver the best possible patient care has always been very important to NICE.
“The growing use of smartphones has created a new culture and means for people to access information while on the move. The NICE Guidance app we launched earlier in the year has been phenomenally successful and we believe that health and care professionals will love our BNF app too.”
The NICE BNF app is the first of NICE’s medicines and prescribing apps.
An app for the British National Formulary for Children (BNFC), is in the late stage of development and will be released soon.
Ben Adams is the reporter for Pharmafocus and InPharm.com and manages the DigiBlog site. He can be contacted via: email or Twitter.
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