FOCUS: Diagnosis (Diversion)

What does your business do? And what is unique about your health technology intervention?

Invistics provides cloud-based software that improves inventory visibility and analytics—across complex health-care systems and global supply chains. Our technology is unique because it can detect the theft of medications, also known as drug diversion detection. Hospitals use our software to track the movement of drugs across the entire health system—from order and initial arrival at a health-care facility, to each time drugs are moved throughout the hospital, administered to patients, and wasted or returned.

How do you help people with the disease of addiction or in response to mental health needs?

Invistics helps deter and prevent drug abuse by health-care workers, thereby lowering Substance Use Disorder (SUD) and addiction by health-care workers. Invistics also detects and prevents the theft of drugs from health-care facilities that are later resold for illicit use in the community, thereby lowering SUD and addiction by members of the community who are not health-care workers.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted your work?

Fortunately, our company has not faced the same challenges as many other companies. Our team has quickly shifted to remote/virtual technology, and our customers can continue to use our software remotely, as well. We have found one important benefit of our technology as a result of COVID-19: Our customers are seeing the theft of medications used to treat COVID-19, and are using our software to deter and prevent those thefts, thereby improving their availability for COVID-19 patients. While our initial focus was preventing the theft of opioids and other addictive controlled substances, we have found our software is just as effective for preventing the theft of medications that are not controlled substances, including those that are being used to treat COVID-19 patients.

What is the biggest challenge as a result of the pandemic?

We would like more hospitals and health systems to know about our software, and how they can use our software to detect and prevent the theft of all medications, including those needed to treat COVID-19.

What else would you like the broader community to know?

Our country has made great strides reducing drug diversion and addiction caused by legal medications, primarily by (a) changing prescribing practices and shutting down “pill mills” and other sources, and (b) curbing drug-seeking behaviors by patients without a legitimate medical need. However, there is still much to be done. In particular, health systems and their leaders need to prevent the theft and diversion of medications from their hospitals and other health-care facilities. Diversion from health-care facilities is pervasive, typically undetected, and often unreported, and is contributing to addiction and overdose deaths across the country.