Metro North Hospital and Health Service has issued a challenge under the Advance Queensland Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) fund for solutions that can help emergency department clinicians make more value-based and evidence-based prescribing decisions.

Funding of up to $500,000 is available under the scheme to develop and test potential solutions, which will be expected to be compatible with existing clinical systems such as Queensland's patient administration system.

There is also the potential to make use of data drawn from the Pyxis MedStations currently being implemented at Metro North, which includes Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Queensland's largest. The Pyxis systems can can collect accurate and precise data on volumes and types of medications used in the ED and provide real-time stock usage reports.