Health Care Professionals: On the Go and in the Know

Health care providers have a new resource to access information about medications for millions of pregnant and breastfeeding mothers thanks to a new smartphone application unveiled today at the 2011 International Lactation Consultant Association Conference.

The app, which is a product of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center’s (TTUHSC) InfantRisk Center, will give health care providers fast, convenient access to up-to-date information about medications and their safety during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

“This is a landmark day for the health and safety of women and infants,” said InfantRisk Center Executive Director Dr. Thomas Hale, who is one of the world’s leading experts in perinatal pharmacology and the use of medications. “The new phone app makes it possible for health care professionals to have immediate access to the most up-to-date information on medications anytime, anywhere to provide the best possible care to their pregnant and breastfeeding patients.”

Hale, who serves as professor of pediatrics and associate dean of research at the TTUHSC School of Medicine, has spent the past 25 years developing a database of evidence-based information on the use of thousands of medications in pregnant and breastfeeding mothers. One of Hale’s books, Medications and Mothers’ Milk, has been translated into multiple languages and is considered to be the best source of medication information for breastfeeding patients in the world.

Features of the app include:
• Reliable safety ratings and other information on more than 20,000 drugs, syndromes and other products
• Search capabilities that allow users to enter product name and/or sort by category to obtain product safety information and indicate if that product is safe for use
• Major lists of appropriate drugs for pregnant and breastfeeding mothers for various conditions (headache, nausea, allergies)
• Easily-accessible recalled product information with push notification ability
• Notification of drug alerts, and special hot topics in this field
“The InfantRisk Center’s smartphone application is an amazing new resource for health care professionals,” said TTUHSC President Dr. Tedd L. Mitchell. “The app is so vital that it could eventually become as synonymous with certain health care professionals as the stethoscope and tongue depressor. We commend Dr. Hale and the InfantRisk Center for their significant contribution to the health and safety of women and infants.”

More than 4 million women give birth in the U.S. each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Virtually all of these women will use at least one medication during pregnancy or when breastfeeding. Of these women, 77 percent will initiate breastfeeding and most will use at least one prescription or over-the-counter medication during lactation.

The InfantRisk Center Mobile Application, which was developed by Hale, TTUHSC, the InfantRisk Center and Fleishman-Hillard International Communications, is compatible with the Android and Apple iPhone. The app is available on iTunes and Android Market for a $29.95 annual subscription. MommyMeds™, the consumer version of the app, will be released later this year. Designed for mothers, the consumer app has many unique features including product-scanning capabilities.

About the InfantRisk Center
The TTUHSC InfantRisk Center strives to educate health care providers and the general public to reduce birth defects and create healthy breastfeeding relationships. The center’s highly-trained staff provides current, evidence-based information about the use of medications during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

Based in Amarillo, Texas, the InfantRisk Center maintains an international call center from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. Since opening in 2010, its staff has responded to more than 5,000 calls from physicians, lactation consultants and mothers. For more information about the InfantRisk Center, visit www.infantrisk.com or follow @infantrisk on Twitter.

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