Formulary and Medicines Information Solution (FaMIS)

WA Health is seeking a Formulary and Medicines Information Solution (FaMIS) and associated development, training and ongoing support services, that provides a ‘one stop shop’ or single platform of medicines and prescribing information to WA Health clinicians.

The solution will be a user-friendly, intuitive and be a highly configurable electronic solution that integrates and/or interfaces with a number of WA Health applications and state or federal data sources.

The solution is not required to be ‘off the shelf’ and could be developed provided the solution is ready to ‘go live’, with all minimum requirements met, on or before the end date of the current WA Health Contract (January 2023).

As per the WA Health Cloud Policy, it is preferred that the solution is hosted on the HealthNext Cloud infrastructure; however, hosting via other private cloud services will be considered where the HealthNext Cloud is deemed unsuitable.

BACKGROUND

A medicines formulary, in the simplest terms, is a list of approved medicine indications for use within a healthcare system. In 2016, WA Health endorsed a Statewide Medicines Formulary (SMF), which comprises of three separate component lists based on patient age group – the adult, paediatric, and neonatal formularies.

In 2017, WA Health launched an electronic solution, Formulary One, to centralise medicines and prescribing information, including the SMF. Formulary One currently provides the following functionality:
• SMF content, including restriction category (unrestricted, restricted, highly restricted, non-formulary);
• medicines funding information via integrated Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) information;
• clinical information from an independent medicine information publication;
• Trade (or brand) name details for all medicines;
• local, State, Federal, and international clinical guidelines;
• medicine safety alerts;
• the Poison’s Schedule classification of medicines (e.g. S3 Pharmacist-only, S4 prescription only, S8: controlled drug etc);
• WA Medicine Information Leaflets and Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) Consumer Medicines Information summaries;
• location of medicines stocked in WA public hospitals; and
• the ability to search for content by medicine name or trade name.

As the current Contract for the Formulary One electronic solution is due for expiry in early 2023, WA Health is looking to establish a new Contract to ensure ongoing, uninterrupted provision of an integrated electronic solution that hosts all SMF and other prescribing support resources into the future.

WA Health is committed to advancing healthcare through the application of innovative software solutions, including to continually review, adapt, and improve the user experience. The new Contract includes several enhancements to the current functionality available in the Formulary One solution, which are anticipated to be either available in the Successful Respondent’s solution at ‘go-live’, or to be delivered on an agreed schedule throughout the Term. These enhancements include:
• ability to search for content by indication;
• ability to search for medicine or indication guidelines;
• addition of TGA Product Information;
• incorporation of additional independent medicine information publications;
• incorporation of the purchase cost of medicines for WA hospitals;
• incorporation of product pack size per unit per trade product (e.g. number of tablets per box, total volume of an oral liquid bottle etc.);
• enhancement of the paediatric and neonatal content to have the same functionality as the adult content; and
• increased customisation options, including reporting and display of Customer-controlled content.