When “Inactive” Ingredients Aren’t: The ICU stay that inspired ExciIQ, with Nicole & Jeff Allen and Mike Brook

For patients with medication hypersensitivities, figuring out exactly what is in a medication can be surprisingly difficult.

In episode 247 of The POTScast, data scientist Mike Brook discussed research showing that the excipient, or “inactive ingredient,” lists in DailyMed drug labels were internally inconsistent in 39% of 100 commonly prescribed drug formulations examined. For patients who react to excipients and rely on these labels to choose safer formulations, inaccurate, conflicting or confusing information can have serious consequences.

Today we continue that conversation with Mike, along with Nicole and Jeff Allen. Nicole is a nurse who has MCAS and reacts to several excipients. Jeff brings 25 years of experience as a data solutions architect working with medical and pharmacy claims. Their motivation to solve this problem is deeply personal. After Nicole experienced repeated severe reactions to a medication excipient that landed her in the ICU for 6 days, Jeff set out to understand the problem and then build a better solution: ExciIQ.

Together, they discuss the real-world challenges facing excipient-sensitive patients, why current drug-labeling data can make avoiding a known trigger so difficult, and how ExciIQ hopes to help patients and healthcare professionals have better options for avoiding problematic excipients in their medications.

Learn more:
ExciIQ: exciiq.com
Previous POTScast episode: Drug Excipients and Label Inconsistencies with Data Scientist Mike Brook
Published research: Inconsistent excipient listings in DailyMed: implications for drug safety

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