Frequently Asked Questions
Enrolling patients
- What should I do if one of my patients wants to participate in NMSOAP?
- What information is my practice supposed to provide to NMSOAP?
- How should I provide HIPAA verification and/or signed HIPAA forms to NMSOAP?
- How should I link the patient’s electronic health record to the NMSOAP platform?
- When a patient enrolls, what responsibilities fall to the patient, and what are the responsibilities of our office practice or pharmacy?
- This sounds like extra work for my practice. What are the benefits of collaborating with NMSOAP?
Patient privacy:
- How are my patients assured of confidentiality and anonymity of their health information?
- How will my patient’s personal health information be used?
- Why do you need access to my patient’s health record in addition to the survey he/she is asked to take monthly?
Patient tracking:
Miscellaneous:
Enrolling patients:
1. What should I do if one of my patients wants to participate in NMSOAP?
Patients should enroll with guidance from their healthcare provider to confirm they are in fact taking one of the target medications, to register (which is initiated online by a physician's office or pharmacy) and to complete a HIPAA release. To enroll your patient, log-in with the credentials provided to you by NMSOAP. If you don’t already have them, request credentials by emailing inquiry@nmsoap.com. Please include your name, the name of your practice, phone number, address and an administrative contact at your practice or pharmacy. A representative from NMSOAP will follow up with you.
2. What information is my practice supposed to provide to NMSOAP?
Healthcare providers are asked to provide their name and contact information, verify and submit the patient's signed HIPAA release to the NMSOAP system, and send a copy of the patient's electronic health record to the NMSOAP database. (Technical information on how to do this will be provided once you are logged in to the system.)
3. How should I provide HIPAA verification and/or signed HIPAA forms to NMSOAP?
Verification of a signed HIPAA form with your practice is required as part of the patient enrollment process. There is the option to upload an scanned copy to NMSOAP.
4. How should I link the patient’s electronic health record to the NMSOAP platform?
The NMSOAP database is able to link with all of the current electronic health record systems. Technical instructions on how to set up the link and upload will be provided. NMSOAP representatives will provide assistance to you and your practice as needed.
5. When a patient enrolls, what responsibilities fall to the patient, and what are the responsibilities of our office practice or pharmacy?
Participant’s healthcare providers are asked to help enroll patients, and to verify participants' HIPAA forms and informed consent. Then, it is the participant’s responsibility to complete the monthly surveys. NMSOAP will provide e-mail and phone reminders, but certainly, additional reminders from health professional staff are very helpful. Your encouragement is appreciated.
6. This sounds like extra work for my practice. What are the benefits of collaborating with NMSOAP?
NMSOAP participation brings the ultimate end-user of the healthcare system – your patients – into the process of evaluating the benefits and risks of their medications as they are used in the “real world.” For healthcare providers, pharmacists and health systems, the NMSOAP:
- Tracks patterns and reasons for poor adherence and makes this available to the patient’s healthcare team, thereby shortening the time between when a problem is identified and when it is addressed. It is important to emphasize that increased medication adherence translates to improved health outcomes and better overall performance by physicians and pharmacists.
- Creates a vehicle for reporting serious adverse events as well as reducing provider burden of responsibility for collecting and reporting serious adverse events to the FDA.
- Provides an early warning system for medication side effects to prevent costly emergency room visits and/or hospital admissions.
- Increases the collection of data that documents improved health outcomes.
Patient privacy:
7. How are my patients assured of confidentiality and anonymity of their health information?
All healthcare information submitted via patient survey and/or submitted via EHR is automatically de-identified upon upload into the NMSOAP database, where it is aggregated with the data from thousands of other NMSOAP participants. All data are encrypted and stored on protected servers. Read more about how we protect patient privacy.
8. How will my patient’s personal health information be used?
Your patient’s survey responses and health information will be aggregated with data from thousands of other patients to assess medication safety, health outcomes, and comparative effectiveness as well as patterns for adherence to treatment regimens. Read more about how we protect patient privacy.
9. Why do you need access to my patient’s health record in addition to the survey he/she is asked to take monthly?
Health records and pharmacy records will provide additional data to support, accompany and validate the voice-of-patient information submitted via patient surveys. Targeted health information that will be “pulled” into the NMSOAP database includes data relating to hospitalizations, emergency room visits, office visits, medication side effects, and clinical laboratory test results relating to the use of the medication under evaluation.
Patient tracking:
10. Can I track the progress of my patients in this study? What information is reported back to me?
Yes. In addition to the patient status and progress reports available via your patient dashboard tracker accessible upon log-in at NMSOAP.com, you will also receive a copy of your patients’ completed surveys each month, plus any safety alerts that require your attention.
Miscellaneous:
11. Is there payment to my patients for participation in this study?
There is no payment to patients for their participation in study.