Performance of community pharmacy drug interaction software.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the performance of computerized drug-drug interaction (DDI) software in identifying clinically important drug-drug interactions.


METHODS
One-time performance test of computer systems using a standard set of prescriptions.


METHODS
Community pharmacies or central corporate locations with pharmacy terminals identical to those used in actual pharmacies.


METHODS
Chain and health maintenance organization (HMO) pharmacies with seven or more practice sites in Washington State. A total of nine different DDI software programs were installed in 516 community pharmacies represented by these chains and HMOs.


METHODS
Sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of software in detecting 16 well-established DDIs contained within six fictitious patient profiles.


RESULTS
The software systems failed to detect clinically relevant DDIs one-third of the time. Sensitivity of the software programs ranged from 0.44 to 0.88, with 1.00 being perfect; specificity ranged from 0.71 to 1.00; positive predictive value ranged from 0.67 to 1.00; and negative predictive value ranged from 0.69 to 0.90. For software packages that were installed at different locations, between-installation differences were observed.


CONCLUSIONS
The performance of most DDI-detecting software programs tested in this study was suboptimal. Improvement is needed to advance their contribution to detection of DDIs.
Hazlet
T K
TK
Department of Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, University of Washington, Seattle 98195-7630, USA. thazlet@u.washington.edu
Lee
T A
TA
Hansten
P D
PD
Horn
J R
JR
D004347:Drug Interactions; D004360:Drug Therapy, Computer-Assisted; D064420:Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions; D006801:Humans; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000517:prevention & control*; D010594:Pharmacies / Q000592:standards*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012984:Software; D014861:Washington