Development and Usage Patterns of a Home-Grown Drug Information Tool

Area of Science:

• Health Informatics
• Clinical Pharmacy
• Medical Technology

Background:

• Medication errors represent a significant source of preventable harm in healthcare.
• Effective drug information tools are crucial for enhancing patient safety and optimizing medication management.
• The integration of technology in healthcare necessitates robust systems for drug information dissemination.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the design, development, and architecture of an electronic drug information tool (eDrugs).
• To analyze the utilization patterns of eDrugs by health professionals in a tertiary university hospital.
• To identify health professionals' information priorities based on tool usage data.

Main Methods:

• Development of an electronic drug information tool accessible to all health professionals.
• Implementation of two core functionalities: a Drug Summary sheet and a Prescription Simulator.
• Analysis of system log data to track user access and information retrieval patterns.

Main Results:

• The eDrugs tool was successfully developed and implemented in a tertiary level university hospital.
• The Drug Summary sheet was the most frequently accessed feature by health professionals.
• Clinical information and antimicrobial drugs were the most sought-after drug information categories.

Conclusions:

• The developed electronic drug information tool, eDrugs, is utilized by health professionals.
• User access patterns indicate a preference for drug summary information and specific drug classes like antimicrobials.
• Analysis of usage data provides valuable insights into the real-time information needs of healthcare providers.