Drug Dosing Issues and Resources

Automated screening for drug allergy has been a less than satisfactory experience for most pharmacists. Alerts tend to be very broad, identifying all possible cross-reactivity for medicine list, and the data concerning the presence of an allergy are often records of intolerances rather than true allergy. In the era of electronic prescribing, an allergy alert may prompt a change in therapy, exposing the patient to a drug which may not have been the prescribers first choice. It is important that these alerts be based on quality history, a full understanding of these adverse drug events, and other types of idiosyncratic reactions which may be relayed by patients as "allergic" reactions. The quality of the data, and the sophistication of the alerts, will continue to be limitations to the automated screening, and challenge all healthcare providers.