NPS’ new dispensing advice
December 12, 2011
PHARMACISTS want improvements
to both the information and
presentation of drug interaction
alerts in prescribing and dispensing
software, according to an NPS survey.
The survey was designed to gauge
Australian doctors’ and
pharmacists’ preferences in relation
to content, format and usability of
drug interaction alerts in
prescribing and dispensing
software, and as such looked at
survey responses from 219
Australian GPs and 170 pharmacists.
Published in the Medical Journal
of Australia the results of the
survey found that the three most
important things GPs and
pharmacists would like addressed
in drug interaction alerts are:
increasing the relevance of drug
interaction alerts to practice;
improving the format and
presentation of drug interaction
alerts; and differentiation of drug
interaction alerts by severity.
“Health professionals want
clearer guidance on the severity
and clinical effects of drug
interactions, as well as how to
manage drug interactions,” an NPS
statement said.
“This research has enabled NPS to
develop a number of
recommendations to improve drug
interaction decision support in
prescribing and dispensing
software,” said NPS CEO Dr Lynn
Weekes.
“By better meeting the
information needs of GPs and
pharmacists, software vendors and
providers of knowledge bases can
help support patient safety and
quality use of medicines in
practice,” Weekes added.
Other findings in the survey
revealed that, the vast majority of
GPs and pharmacists considered
severity, clinical effects and
management advice to be mostly
or sometimes useful in drug
interaction alerts; whilst the most
popular drug interaction alert
format, favoured by 69% of GPs and
83% of pharmacists, was one with
headings and one or two succinct
bullet points under each.
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