Drug Dosing Issues and Resources

A recent JAMIA study by Bates et al. noted that the strongest factor influencing acceptance of alerts from drug interaction software is the presentation. This was found to have a stronger association than factors such as the setting or level of the alert. In an electronic prescribing environment, there is much concern about alert fatigue. Drug data vendors are often the targets of frustration of clinicians, and there is a reasonable criticism regarding the ability to have more consistency in alerting, the ability to filter to the user, and suppression of "truthful but not useful" alerts. Considering the role these alerts play in preventing adverse drug events, it would seem that at least as much attention should be paid to the way the alerts are delivered.