What is the Health Care Notification Network (HCNN)?
The HCNN is an online service that delivers important patient safety alerts that are product-related and mandated by the FDA, to physicians and other healthcare professionals via email. Currently, these alerts (also known as “Dear Doctor letters”) are sent to physicians on paper via traditional U.S. mail – a slow, error-prone process. The HCNN may also be used to notify physicians in the event of national public health emergencies or bio-terror events. The HCNN is designed to improve the speed and efficacy of the delivery of US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mandated patient safety alerts to physicians and other healthcare providers. Under the current system, patient safety alerts sent out via US mail can be significantly delayed, and in some cases, may not even reach the intended recipient. Today, safety alert letters arrive in the mail at physician practices along with large volumes of marketing materials, further diluting the efficacy of the alerts and decreasing the likelihood
