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Computerized advice on drug dosage to improve prescribing practice
Pierre Durieux1, Ludovic Trinquart, Isabelle Colombet
1Service de Santé Publique, Hôpital Cochin, 27 rue du Faubourg Saint Jacques, Paris, France, 75014. pierre.durieux@cch.ap-hop-paris.fr
The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
|July 23, 2008
Summary
Computerized drug dosage advice improves patient care by increasing initial doses, achieving therapeutic concentrations faster, and reducing hospital stays. While it enhances drug management, it does not impact adverse reactions.
Area of Science:
- Health Informatics
- Pharmacology
- Clinical Practice
Background:
- Managing drugs with narrow therapeutic windows requires precise dosing.
- Computer systems offer potential solutions for optimizing drug dosage.
- This review updates previous research on computerized drug dosage advice.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the effectiveness of computerized drug dosage advice on healthcare processes and outcomes.
- To determine if computer-generated recommendations improve patient care and clinical practice.
Main Methods:
- Systematic review of randomized controlled trials, controlled trials, and interrupted time series analyses.
- Searched multiple databases (Cochrane, MEDLINE, EMBASE) and hand-searched journals.
- Included studies on health professionals using computerized drug dosage advice, measuring provider behavior and patient health outcomes.
Main Results:
- Computerized advice significantly increased initial drug doses and serum concentrations.
- It reduced the time to achieve therapeutic drug stabilization.
- The intervention lowered the risk of toxic drug levels and decreased hospital length of stay.
Conclusions:
- Computerized drug dosage advice demonstrates benefits in optimizing drug therapy and reducing hospitalizations.
- No significant effect was observed on adverse drug reactions.
- The study found no evidence that specific technical features or organizational aspects enhance the effectiveness of computerized advice.
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