Facilitating drug-use evaluation with spreadsheet software

The use of a personal computer spreadsheet program, Lotus 1-2-3, as an aid in drug-use evaluation is described. Dipyridamole was chosen for review because the drug is widely prescribed and often given for questionable indications. Developing criteria that could be translated into conditional logic statements made possible the use of the spreadsheet program for determining appropriateness of drug use. As data are entered into spreadsheet cells, the program simultaneously determines if the criteria for appropriate drug use are met. The program is not particularly difficult to apply to drug-use evaluation and is faster, more accurate, and more consistent than manual processing of data. In addition, the program allows the user to extract subsets of data for more detailed examination of drug-use patterns. Because decisions by the operator are unnecessary during data entry, this step can be performed by secretarial or technical personnel rather than pharmacists. A commercially available spreadsheet software program was faster and more accurate than a manual system for determining appropriate drug use.