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AHRQ Research Studies Date
Topics
- Adverse Drug Events (ADE) (18)
- Adverse Events (13)
- Ambulatory Care and Surgery (1)
- Antibiotics (1)
- Blood Thinners (1)
- Children/Adolescents (1)
- Clinical Decision Support (CDS) (3)
- Communication (2)
- Critical Care (1)
- Data (1)
- Decision Making (2)
- Diagnostic Safety and Quality (2)
- Education: Patient and Caregiver (1)
- (-) Electronic Health Records (EHRs) (27)
- Electronic Prescribing (E-Prescribing) (4)
- Healthcare Delivery (1)
- Health Information Technology (HIT) (21)
- Hospitalization (1)
- Hospitals (1)
- Intensive Care Unit (ICU) (1)
- Medical Errors (5)
- Medication (26)
- (-) Medication: Safety (27)
- Patient and Family Engagement (1)
- Patient Safety (21)
- Prevention (2)
- Provider (2)
- Provider: Clinician (2)
- Risk (1)
AHRQ Research Studies
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Research Studies is a compilation of published research articles funded by AHRQ or authored by AHRQ researchers.
Results
1 to 25 of 27 Research Studies DisplayedYerneni S, Shah S, Blackley SV
Heterogeneity of drug allergies and reaction lists in two U.S. healthcare systems' electronic health records.
This study compared adverse drug reaction (ADRs) picklists for clinicians in the electronic health record (EHR) allergy list for two different healthcare institutions. The authors used data from the EHRs of patients who visited the emergency department or outpatient clinics at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and University of Colorado Hospital (UCH) from 2013-2018. They investigated the reactions on each picklist and compared the top 40 reactions at each institution, as well as the top 10 reactions within each drug class. Out of 2,160,116 patients sampled, 30% reported active drug allergies. The most commonly reported drug class allergens were similar between the two institutions, however BWH’s picklist had 48 reactions while UCH’s had 160. Twenty-nine reactions were shared by both picklists. There was a lot more granularity with UCH’s picklist so that body locality, swelling and edema were described in much greater detail than for BWH. These picklists may partially explain variations in reported ADRs across healthcare systems.
AHRQ-funded; HS025375.
Citation: Yerneni S, Shah S, Blackley SV .
Heterogeneity of drug allergies and reaction lists in two U.S. healthcare systems' electronic health records.
Appl Clin Inform 2022 May 26;13(3):741-51. doi: 10.1055/a-1862-9425..
Keywords: Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT), Medication, Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Adverse Events, Medication: Safety, Patient Safety
Reese TJ, Del Fiol G, Morgan K
A shared decision-making tool for drug interactions between warfarin and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs: design and usability study.
Exposure to life-threatening drug-drug interactions (DDIs) occurs despite the widespread use of clinical decision support. The DDI between warfarin and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs is common and potentially life-threatening. Patients can play a substantial role in preventing harm from DDIs; however, the current model for DDI decision-making is clinician centric. This study aimed to design and examine the usability of DDInteract, a tool to support shared decision-making (SDM) between a patient and provider for the DDI between warfarin and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
AHRQ-funded; HS026198.
Citation: Reese TJ, Del Fiol G, Morgan K .
A shared decision-making tool for drug interactions between warfarin and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs: design and usability study.
JMIR Hum Factors 2021 Oct 26;8(4):e28618. doi: 10.2196/28618..
Keywords: Blood Thinners, Medication: Safety, Medication, Clinical Decision Support (CDS), Decision Making, Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT), Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Adverse Events, Patient Safety
Watterson TL, Stone JA, Brown R
CancelRx: a health IT tool to reduce medication discrepancies in the outpatient setting.
Medication list discrepancies between outpatient clinics and pharmacies can lead to medication errors. Within the last decade, a new health information technology (IT), CancelRx, emerged to send a medication cancellation message from the clinic's electronic health record (EHR) to the outpatient pharmacy's software. The objective of this study was to measure the impact of CancelRx on reducing medication discrepancies between the EHR and pharmacy dispensing software.
AHRQ-funded; HS025793.
Citation: Watterson TL, Stone JA, Brown R .
CancelRx: a health IT tool to reduce medication discrepancies in the outpatient setting.
J Am Med Inform Assoc 2021 Jul 14;28(7):1526-33. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocab038..
Keywords: Medication: Safety, Medication, Medical Errors, Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Adverse Events, Patient Safety, Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT), Ambulatory Care and Surgery
Wu P, Nelson SD, Zhao J
DDIWAS: high-throughput electronic health record-based screening of drug-drug interactions.
In this study, the investigators developed and evaluated Drug-Drug Interaction Wide Association Study (DDIWAS). This novel method detected potential drug-drug interactions (DDIs) by leveraging data from the electronic health record (EHR) allergy list. The investigators concluded that they demonstrated the value of incorporating information mined from existing allergy lists to detect DDIs in a real-world clinical setting. They indicate that since allergy lists are routinely collected in EHRs, DDIWAS has the potential to detect and validate DDI signals across institutions.
AHRQ-funded; HS026395.
Citation: Wu P, Nelson SD, Zhao J .
DDIWAS: high-throughput electronic health record-based screening of drug-drug interactions.
J Am Med Inform Assoc 2021 Jul 14;28(7):1421-30. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocab019..
Keywords: Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Adverse Events, Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT), Medication, Medication: Safety, Patient Safety
Kandaswamy S, Pruitt Z, Kazi S
Clinician perceptions on the use of free-text communication orders.
The aim of this study was to investigate (1) why ordering clinicians use free-text orders to communicate medication information; (2) what risks physicians and nurses perceive when free-text orders are used for communicating medication information; and (3) how electronic health records (EHRs) could be improved to encourage the safe communication of medication information. The investigators concluded that clinicians' use of free-text orders as a workaround to insufficient structured order entry can create unintended patient safety risks.
AHRQ-funded; HS025136; HS024755.
Citation: Kandaswamy S, Pruitt Z, Kazi S .
Clinician perceptions on the use of free-text communication orders.
Appl Clin Inform 2021 May;12(3):484-94. doi: 10.1055/s-0041-1731002..
Keywords: Electronic Prescribing (E-Prescribing), Health Information Technology (HIT), Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Medication: Safety, Medication, Patient Safety, Communication, Provider: Clinician, Provider, Risk
Alvarez-Arango S, Yerneni S, Tang O
Vancomycin hypersensitivity reactions documented in electronic health records.
This study’s objective is to describe vancomycin hypersensitivity reaction (HSR) epidemiology in hospitals documented in electronic health records. Vancomycin is the most commonly prescribed antimicrobial in US hospitals. A cross-sectional study of patients with 1 or more encounter from 2017 to 2019 and an electronic health record vancomycin drug allergy label (DAL) in 2 US health care systems was conducted. Prevalence and trends of vancomycin DALs and assessed active DALs by HSR phenotype was determined. Out of almost 4.5 million patients, 14,426 (0.3%) had a vancomycin DAL with 18,761 documented reactions. Out of those 18,761 vancomycin HSRs, 42.1% were immediate phenotypes and 20.7% were delayed phenotypes. Common reactions were rash and red man syndrome (RMS). Anaphylaxis occurred in 6% of HSRs. RMS reaction was more likely for males and less likely for Blacks.
AHRQ-funded; HS025375.
Citation: Alvarez-Arango S, Yerneni S, Tang O .
Vancomycin hypersensitivity reactions documented in electronic health records.
J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract 2021 Feb;9(2):906-12. doi: 10.1016/j.jaip.2020.09.027..
Keywords: Antibiotics, Medication, Medication: Safety, Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT), Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Adverse Events, Patient Safety
Salmasian H, Blanchfield BB, Joyce K
Association of display of patient photographs in the electronic health record with wrong-patient order entry errors.
Wrong-patient order entry (WPOE) errors have a high potential for harm; these errors are particularly frequent wherever workflows are complex and multitasking and interruptions are common, such as in the emergency department (ED). The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the use of noninterruptive display of patient photographs in the banner of the electronic health record (EHR) is associated with a decreased rate of WPOE errors.
AHRQ-funded; HS024713.
Citation: Salmasian H, Blanchfield BB, Joyce K .
Association of display of patient photographs in the electronic health record with wrong-patient order entry errors.
AMA Netw Open 2020 Nov 2;3(11):e2019652. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.19652..
Keywords: Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT), Medical Errors, Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Adverse Events, Medication, Medication: Safety, Patient Safety, Diagnostic Safety and Quality
Banerji A, Lai KH, Li Y
Natural language processing combined with ICD-9-CM codes as a novel method to study the epidemiology of allergic drug reactions.
Researchers sought to develop and validate a novel informatics method based on natural language processing (NLP) in combination with ICD-9-CM codes that identifies allergic drug reactions in the electronic health record. They found that using NLP with ICD-9-CM codes improved identification of allergic drug reactions, and they concluded that the resulting decrease in manual chart review effort will facilitate large epidemiology studies of this understudied area.
AHRQ-funded; HS024264; HS025375.
Citation: Banerji A, Lai KH, Li Y .
Natural language processing combined with ICD-9-CM codes as a novel method to study the epidemiology of allergic drug reactions.
J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract 2020 Mar;8(3):1032-38.e1. doi: 10.1016/j.jaip.2019.12.007..
Keywords: Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT), Medication: Safety, Medication, Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Adverse Events, Patient Safety
Holmgren AJ, Co Z, Newmark L
Assessing the safety of electronic health records: a national longitudinal study of medication-related decision support.
The authors tested how well EHRs prevented medication errors with the potential for patient harm. Data from a national, longitudinal sample of 1527 hospitals in the US from 2009-16 who took a safety performance assessment test using simulated medication orders was used. The authors found that hospital medication order safety performance improved over time. They conclude that intentional quality improvement efforts appear to be a critical part of high safety performance and may indicate the importance of a culture of safety.
AHRQ-funded; HS023696.
Citation: Holmgren AJ, Co Z, Newmark L .
Assessing the safety of electronic health records: a national longitudinal study of medication-related decision support.
BMJ Qual Saf 2020 Jan;29(1):52-59. doi: 10.1136/bmjqs-2019-009609..
Keywords: Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT), Patient Safety, Medication, Electronic Prescribing (E-Prescribing), Medication: Safety, Clinical Decision Support (CDS), Decision Making
Carayon P, Wetterneck TB, Cartmill R
Medication safety in two intensive care units of a community teaching hospital after electronic health record implementation: sociotechnical and human factors engineering considerations.
This study examined the impact of electronic health record (EHR) implementation in two intensive care units (ICUs). The authors assessed 1254 consecutive admissions before and after an EHR implementation. They identified 4063 medication-related events either pre-implementation (2074 events) or post-implementation (1989 events). The overall potential for harm due to medication errors decreased post-implementation, but only 2 of the 3 error rates were significantly lower post-implementation. They observed reductions in rates of medication errors per admission at the stages of transcription, dispensing, and administration. In the ordering stage, 4 error types decreased post-implementation (orders with omitted information, error-prone abbreviations, illegible orders, failure to renew orders) and 4 error types increased post-implementation (orders of wrong drug, orders containing a wrong start or stop time, duplicate orders, orders with inappropriate or wrong information).
AHRQ-funded; HS015274; HS000083.
Citation: Carayon P, Wetterneck TB, Cartmill R .
Medication safety in two intensive care units of a community teaching hospital after electronic health record implementation: sociotechnical and human factors engineering considerations.
J Patient Saf 2021 Aug 1;17(5):e429-e39. doi: 10.1097/pts.0000000000000358.
AHRQ-funded; HS015274; HS000083..
AHRQ-funded; HS015274; HS000083..
Keywords: Medication: Safety, Medication, Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Critical Care, Patient Safety, Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT)
P Dellsperger, KC Fallaw, D
AHRQ Author: Rangachari
A mixed-method study of practitioners' perspectives on issues related to EHR medication reconciliation at a health system.
This study sought to identify issues related to electronic health record (EHR) medication reconciliation (MedRec) from the perspective of practitioners directly involved in the EHR MedRec process, with the goal of reducing medication discrepancies during transitions of care and improving the accuracy of patient medication lists. The study was conducted in two rounds: individual interviews, then a survey of physicians, nurses, and pharmacists based in the outpatient and inpatient medicine service at AU Health. The survey elicited practitioner ratings of the importance of issues identified during the interviews. Issues that were rated as important by more than 70 percent of respondents include care coordination, patient education, ownership and accountability, processes-of-care, IT-related issues, and workforce training. From these issues, the authors conclude that there is an absence of shared understanding among practitioners regarding the value of EHR MedRec in promoting patient safety, which contributes to work-arounds and the suboptimal use of the EHR MedRec system, and there is also a sociotechnical dimension to many of these issues which creates an additional layer of complexity.
AHRQ-funded; HS024335.
Citation: P Dellsperger, KC Fallaw, D .
A mixed-method study of practitioners' perspectives on issues related to EHR medication reconciliation at a health system.
Qual Manag Health Care 2019 Apr/Jun;28(2):84-95. doi: 10.1097/qmh.0000000000000208..
Keywords: Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT), Medication, Medication: Safety, Patient Safety, Provider, Provider: Clinician
Wong A, Seger DL, Lai KH
Drug hypersensitivity reactions documented in electronic health records within a large health system.
The goal of this study was to examine the epidemiology of hypersensitivity reactions (HSRs) using EHR data from the Partners Enterprise-wide Allergy Repository for two large tertiary care hospitals. HSRs were categorized as immediate or delayed and the causative drugs and drug groups assessed. Prevalence of HSRs was determined, and the sex and race of patients analyzed. Penicillins were associated with the most immediate and delayed reactions. Nearly half of the reported immediate HSRs manifested as hives. HSRs were more prevalent in females and white patients, but differences were identified for specific, rare HSRs.
AHRQ-funded; HS022728; HS025375.
Citation: Wong A, Seger DL, Lai KH .
Drug hypersensitivity reactions documented in electronic health records within a large health system.
J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract 2019 Apr;7(4):1253-60.e3. doi: 10.1016/j.jaip.2018.11.023..
Keywords: Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Adverse Events, Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT), Medication, Medication: Safety, Patient Safety
Wolfson AR, Zhou L, Li Y
Drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS) syndrome identified in the electronic health record allergy module.
Drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS) syndrome is a rare but severe hypersensitivity reaction that remains poorly characterized in the United States. The objective of this study was to identify and describe DRESS syndrome cases in an integrated health care system using electronic health record (EHR) allergy module free-text searches.
AHRQ-funded; HS022728; HS025375.
Citation: Wolfson AR, Zhou L, Li Y .
Drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS) syndrome identified in the electronic health record allergy module.
J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract 2019 Feb;7(2):633-40. doi: 10.1016/j.jaip.2018.08.013..
Keywords: Medication, Medication: Safety, Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Adverse Events, Patient Safety, Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT)
Prey JE, Polubriaginof F, Grossman LV
Engaging hospital patients in the medication reconciliation process using tablet computers.
Researchers conducted a pilot study to determine whether patients’ use of an electronic home medication review tool on a table computer could improve medication safety before or after hospitalization. Patients were randomized to the tool and out of 76 patients approached, 65 participated. About three-quarters (74%) made changes to their home medication list. Out of that total, 74% of the changes identified had a significant or greater potential severity, and 49% had a greater than 50-50 chance of harm. This medication reconciliation tool showed great potential to improve medication safety during and after hospitalization.
AHRQ-funded; HS021816.
Citation: Prey JE, Polubriaginof F, Grossman LV .
Engaging hospital patients in the medication reconciliation process using tablet computers.
J Am Med Inform Assoc 2018 Nov;25(11):1460-69. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocy115..
Keywords: Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Adverse Events, Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT), Hospitalization, Hospitals, Medication, Medication: Safety, Patient and Family Engagement, Patient Safety, Prevention
Ratwani RM, Savage E, Will A
Identifying electronic health record usability and safety challenges in pediatric settings.
To understand specific usability issues and medication errors in the care of children, the investigators analyzed 9,000 patient safety reports, made in the period 2012-17, from three different health care institutions that were likely related to EHR use. They found: the general pattern of usability challenges and medication errors were the same across the three sites; the most common usability challenges were associated with system feedback and the visual display; and the most common medication error was improper dosing.
AHRQ-funded; HS023701.
Citation: Ratwani RM, Savage E, Will A .
Identifying electronic health record usability and safety challenges in pediatric settings.
Health Aff 2018 Nov;37(11):1752-59. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2018.0699..
Keywords: Children/Adolescents, Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT), Medical Errors, Medication, Medication: Safety, Patient Safety, Children/Adolescents
Bates DW, Singh H
Two decades since To Err Is Human: an assessment of progress and emerging priorities in patient safety.
This paper comments on the progress made in improving patient safety since the 1999 report from The Institute of Medicine titled “To Err is Human” was published. This landmark report highlighted problem areas, and since then there has been a number of effective interventions to prevent hospital-acquired infections and improve medication safety. Additional areas for improvement have also been identified in the past two decades, including outpatient care, diagnostic, errors and the use of health information technology. The authors believe that electronic data developments can help increase patient safety even further.
AHRQ-funded; HS022087; HS017820.
Citation: Bates DW, Singh H .
Two decades since To Err Is Human: an assessment of progress and emerging priorities in patient safety.
Health Aff 2018 Nov;37(11):1736-43. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2018.0738..
Keywords: Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Adverse Events, Diagnostic Safety and Quality, Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT), Medical Errors, Medication, Medication: Safety, Patient Safety, Prevention
Wong A, Plasek JM, Montecalvo SP
Natural language processing and its implications for the future of medication safety: a narrative review of recent advances and challenges.
This review illustrates the fundamentals of natural language processing (NLP) and discusses the application the NLPs to medication safety in four data sources: electronic health records, Internet-based data, published literature, and reporting systems. The benefit of NLP is its time-saving features in association with the automation of medication safety tasks, as well as the potential for near real-time identification of adverse events, such as incidents posted on social media that might otherwise go unanalyzed. However, NLP is limited by a lack of data sharing between health care organizations, which inhibits wider adverse event monitoring across populations. The authors anticipate that future work on NLPs will focus on integrating of data sources from different domains to more quickly identify potential adverse events and to improve clinical decision support regarding patients’ estimated risks for specific adverse events.
AHRQ-funded; HS022728; HS024264; HS025375.
Citation: Wong A, Plasek JM, Montecalvo SP .
Natural language processing and its implications for the future of medication safety: a narrative review of recent advances and challenges.
Pharmacotherapy 2018 Aug;38(8):822-41. doi: 10.1002/phar.2151..
Keywords: Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Adverse Events, Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT), Medication, Medication: Safety, Patient Safety
Rangachari P, Dellsperger KC, Fallaw D
Creating a foundation for implementing an electronic health records (EHR)-integrated Social Knowledge Networking (SKN) system on medication reconciliation.
Augusta University received a two-year grant from AHRQ, to implement a Social Knowledge Networking (SKN) system for enabling its health system, AU-Health, to progress from "limited use" of EHR Medication Reconciliation (MedRec) Technology, to "meaningful use." Phase 1 sought to identify a comprehensive set of issues related to EHR MedRec encountered by practitioners at AU-Health. The purpose of this paper is to describe the methods and results of Phase 1.
AHRQ-funded; HS024335.
Citation: Rangachari P, Dellsperger KC, Fallaw D .
Creating a foundation for implementing an electronic health records (EHR)-integrated Social Knowledge Networking (SKN) system on medication reconciliation.
J Hosp Adm 2018 Apr;7(2):36-49. doi: 10.5430/jha.v7n2p36.
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Keywords: Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT), Medication: Safety, Medication, Patient Safety
Wong A, Seger DL, Slight SP
Evaluation of 'definite' anaphylaxis drug allergy alert overrides in inpatient and outpatient settings.
The aim of this study was to determine the rate of anaphylaxis overrides, the reasons for these overrides, whether the overrides were appropriate, and if harm occurred from overrides. Overrides of 'definite' anaphylaxis drug-allergy interactions were common and often appropriate. Most overrides were due to desensitizations.
AHRQ-funded; HS021094.
Citation: Wong A, Seger DL, Slight SP .
Evaluation of 'definite' anaphylaxis drug allergy alert overrides in inpatient and outpatient settings.
Drug Saf 2018 Mar;41(3):297-302. doi: 10.1007/s40264-017-0615-1.
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Keywords: Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Clinical Decision Support (CDS), Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Medication: Safety, Medication
Cornu P, Phansalkar S, Seger DL
High-priority and low-priority drug-drug interactions in different international electronic health record systems: a comparative study.
The purpose of this comparative retrospective study was to investigate whether alert warnings for high-priority and low-priority drug-drug interactions were present in five international electronic health record systems, to compare and contrast the severity level assigned to them, and to establish the proportion of alerts that were overridden.
AHRQ-funded; HS021094.
Citation: Cornu P, Phansalkar S, Seger DL .
High-priority and low-priority drug-drug interactions in different international electronic health record systems: a comparative study.
Int J Med Inform 2018 Mar;111:165-71. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2017.12.027..
Keywords: Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT), Medication, Medication: Safety
Blumenthal KG, Acker WW, Li Y
Allergy entry and deletion in the electronic health record.
The researchers aimed to assess drug allergy entry, deletion, and accumulation, to identify health care professional types recording allergy data, and to assess the reaction types that lead to allergy entry and deletion. They found that of all allergies, 38.2 percent were immune mediated and 29.6 percent included only adverse effect reactions. Unavailable or unknown reactions comprised 32.2 percent of all allergies entered or deleted.
AHRQ-funded; HS022728.
Citation: Blumenthal KG, Acker WW, Li Y .
Allergy entry and deletion in the electronic health record.
Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol 2017 Mar;118(3):380-81. doi: 10.1016/j.anai.2016.12.020.
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Keywords: Data, Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Medication: Safety, Medication, Adverse Drug Events (ADE)
Adams KT, Howe JL, Fong A
An analysis of patient safety incident reports associated with electronic health record interoperability.
The study’s objectives were to (1) identify patient safety incident reports that reflect EHR interoperability challenges with other health IT, and (2) perform a detailed analysis of these reports. It found that the majority of EHR interoperability patient safety event (PSE) reports involved interfacing with pharmacy systems (i.e. medication related), followed by laboratory, and radiology. Most of the interoperability challenges in these clinical areas were associated with the EHR receiving information from other health IT systems.
AHRQ-funded; HS023701.
Citation: Adams KT, Howe JL, Fong A .
An analysis of patient safety incident reports associated with electronic health record interoperability.
Appl Clin Inform 2017 Feb;8(2):593-602. doi: 10.4338/ACI-2017-01-RA-0014.
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Keywords: Healthcare Delivery, Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Electronic Prescribing (E-Prescribing), Medication: Safety, Patient Safety
Curtis LM, Mullen RJ, Russell A
An efficacy trial of an electronic health record-based strategy to inform patients on safe medication use: the role of written and spoken communication.
The researchers tested the feasibility and efficacy of an electronic health record (EHR) strategy that automated the delivery of print medication information at the time of prescribing. They found that written information and physician counseling were independently associated with patient understanding of risk information and that receiving both was most beneficial. They concluded that although an EHR can be a reliable means to deliver tangible, print medication education to patients, it cannot replace physician-patient communication, and that offering both written and spoken information resulted in a synergistic effect for informing patients.
AHRQ-funded; HS017220.
Citation: Curtis LM, Mullen RJ, Russell A .
An efficacy trial of an electronic health record-based strategy to inform patients on safe medication use: the role of written and spoken communication.
Patient Educ Couns 2016 Sep;99(9):1489-95. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2016.07.004.
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Keywords: Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Communication, Education: Patient and Caregiver, Medication: Safety, Medication
Zhou L, Dhopeshwarkar N, Blumenthal KG
Drug allergies documented in electronic health records of a large healthcare system.
The authors studied the prevalence of common drug allergies and patient characteristics documented in electronic health records of two large tertiary care hospitals in Boston from 1990 to 2013. They found that drug allergies in general were most prevalent among females and white patients, but that allergies to NSAIDs, ACE inhibitors, and thiazide diuretics were more prevalent in black patients.
AHRQ-funded; HS022728.
Citation: Zhou L, Dhopeshwarkar N, Blumenthal KG .
Drug allergies documented in electronic health records of a large healthcare system.
Allergy 2016 Sep;71(9):1305-13. doi: 10.1111/all.12881.
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Keywords: Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Medication: Safety, Medication
Topaz M, Seger DL, Slight SP
Rising drug allergy alert overrides in electronic health records: an observational retrospective study of a decade of experience.
The authors aimed to explore the common drug allergy alerts over the last 10 years and the reasons why providers tend to override these alerts. They found that alarmingly, alerts for immune mediated and life threatening reactions with definite allergen and prescribed medication matches were overridden 72.8 percent and 74.1 percent of the time, respectively.
AHRQ-funded; HS022728.
Citation: Topaz M, Seger DL, Slight SP .
Rising drug allergy alert overrides in electronic health records: an observational retrospective study of a decade of experience.
J Am Med Inform Assoc 2016 May;23(3):601-8. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocv143.
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Keywords: Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Medication, Medication: Safety, Patient Safety