Decision support for sensible dosing in electronic prescribing systems

Area of Science:

• Pharmacology
• Health Informatics
• Clinical Decision Support

Background:

• Computerized prescribing systems with decision support can prevent medication errors by checking doses.
• Existing systems lack systematic methods for incorporating dosing information.
• Ensuring appropriate medication doses is crucial to avoid toxicity or undertreatment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and test a novel algorithm for dose range checking using pharmacological data.
• To evaluate the algorithm's feasibility for implementation in electronic prescribing systems.
• To identify essential clinical decision support functions for optimizing prescribing safety.

Main Methods:

• Developed an algorithm based on pharmacological principles.
• Tested the algorithm on a subset of frequently prescribed drugs within an electronic prescribing system.
• Refined the algorithm and identified necessary system functions for effective clinical decision support.

Main Results:

• The final algorithm incorporates eleven broad factors.
• The algorithm successfully accommodated 30 drug-route-form combinations during testing.
• Several system functions crucial for comprehensive dosing decision support were identified.

Conclusions:

• The derived dose range checking algorithm can improve clinical workflow and warning systems for enhanced patient safety.
• This work provides a foundation for developing optimal decision support schemes for prescribing systems.