A review of the implementation of a medication decision support system to improve patients’ drug usage evaluation

Background and aims: Drug usage evaluation is a criteria-based ongoing evaluation programthat helps us to ensure appropriate medication use in hospitals and clinics. Many strategies canimprove medication use, including educational programs, standard treatment guidelines, informationtechnology interventions, and other management activities and monitoring programs. Thisstudy investigates medication decision support systems as computer-based systems to supportphysicians in drug prescription decision-making for patient care.Method: The data were collected by searching PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, and Embasedatabases. The searched keywords were: “drug usage evaluation” “medication use” “medicationdecision support” “drug prescription” “hospital information system” and “electronic health file”.The search was limited to studies in the English language. Review articles, duplicate publications,and non-relevant articles were excluded.Results: Medication decision support systems are of specific importance in changing behaviorand increasing physician adherence in drug management using drug therapy guidelines. In particular,medication decision support systems can provide clinicians with patient-specific assessmentsand treatment recommendations immediately at the time of bedside decision-making fordrug prescriptions. In addition to the fact that they have effectively shown an increase in adherenceto clinical guidelines, by knowing the patient’s past medical history as well as the patient’scurrent clinical condition, the medication decision support system can guide treatment along withelectronic health records, hospital information system, and drug usage evaluation system.Conclusion: A medication decision support tool and the drug usage evaluation system can improvethe drug administration process according to the current standards of care. It is also helpfulin implementing drug therapy guidelines for appropriately using drugs and controlling drug therapycosts.

کلیدواژه ها:

Drug usage evaluation ، Medication decision support ، Hospital information system ، Electronic health file