NewYork-Presbyterian and Splunk to Implement New Approach to Guard Against Misuse of Controlled Substances, Including Opioids Misuse
Splunk Helps One of the Nation’s Leading Hospital Systems Fight Prescription Fraud
Splunk Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLK), delivering actions and outcomes from the world of data, and NewYork-Presbyterian, one of the nation’s most comprehensive academic healthcare delivery systems, are collaborating to help solve one of the toughest challenges in healthcare. NewYork-Presbyterian and Splunk are working together to develop new data analytics tools that prevent the potential diversion of controlled substances, including opioids.
“At a time when overdose deaths are at crisis levels across the country and in New York City, largely due to the opioid epidemic, healthcare providers have a responsibility to safeguard against any potential diversion of drugs,” said Jennings Aske, senior vice president and chief information security officer at NewYork-Presbyterian. “NewYork-Presbyterian is taking a leading role in protecting the public by implementing highly effective controls to avoid the illegitimate use of controlled substances. Ultimately, we hope that other hospitals benefit from this new platform as well.”
NewYork-Presbyterian approached Splunk to develop the controlled substance monitoring platform, while also enhancing patient privacy, because of its products’ unique ability to synthesize big data analytics with a massive volume and a variety of data from hundreds of clinical applications, systems and data sources. NewYork-Presbyterian, which currently uses Splunk® Enterprise and Splunk Enterprise Security to monitor IT security operations, recognized that the same principles could be used to build a platform to more closely safeguard controlled substances and other medications, and ultimately benefit the greater healthcare community as a public good.
The enhanced Splunk controlled substance monitoring platform, which will be implemented in Q2 of 2019, will enable NewYork-Presbyterian to track data from electronic health records (EHRs), Electronic Prescription of Controlled Substances (EPCS) platforms, pharmacy dispensing systems and other sources, delivering insights to guard against the diversion of these medications. With the enhanced system, NewYork-Presbyterian will be able to see if drugs are being diverted for potentially illegitimate purposes. For example, the Splunk platform will immediately alert NewYork-Presbyterian if a physician were to prescribe a controlled substance to a patient not currently in the care of the hospital, or if a pharmacy technician were to use an automated dispensary cabinet more often than his or her peers. In addition, the platform will be used to safeguard against the diversion of other high-cost medications, such as certain anti-cancer drugs that can be priced at tens of thousands of dollars per month.
NewYork-Presbyterian and Splunk also are developing an enhanced data analytics tool to expand proactive security measures to protect patient privacy and investigate unauthorized access to electronic patient records from internal and external sources. NewYork-Presbyterian currently has an established and robust set of policies, protocols and system controls to protect patient information. The enhanced Splunk privacy platform will add even more safeguards, including the ability to issue alerts in real time if someone were to inappropriately view patient records. The platform has a user-friendly dashboard so the hospital’s privacy officers can easily and quickly conduct an investigation.
“Splunk is excited to work with NewYork-Presbyterian as it leads the way in helping to fight the opioid crisis with data analytics,” said Haiyan Song, senior vice president and general manager of security markets at Splunk. “In addition, we are thrilled to work with the hospital system to help it identify and respond swiftly to potential misuse of patient data. Ultimately, this will enhance NewYork-Presbyterian’s capabilities to protect their patients and provide the best possible care.”
“We are pleased to collaborate with Splunk so that NewYork-Presbyterian is among the most secure hospital systems in the nation,” Aske said. “In addition to delivering the highest quality care, we are committed to keeping our patient information private and secure. NewYork-Presbyterian is at the forefront of using advanced technology to protect our patients and provide innovative, compassionate care.”