A mobile medicine decision support system for district nurses.
Inappropriate use of medicines increases the risk of hospital admissions for the elderly. Not only does this lead to unnecessary suffering for the patients but also incurs a great financial cost to the society. A medicine decision support system in a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), with a barcode reader, can provide an overview of the patients' complete medicine use, and detect unsuitable drugs and drug combinations. Focusing on the elderly, our aim was to evaluate if a mobile medicine decision support system with a barcode reader is useful and user-friendly for nurses in home care. The participants received a comprehensive overview from the patients' medicine use and noted drug-drug interactions, therapeutic duplications and warnings for drugs unsuitable for elderly people. The nurses regarded that the decision support system increased prevention and safety, was useful and user-friendly. Our findings suggest that most of the content and functions were regarded as important. Therefore, this decision support system might be a useful tool for district nurses.
Johansson
Pauline
P
The eHealth Institute and the School of Pure and Applied Natural Sciences, University of Kalmar, Kalmar, Sweden. pauline.johansson@hik.se
Petersson
Göran
G
Nilsson
Gunilla
G
D000328:Adult; D034201:Computers, Handheld; D020000:Decision Support Systems, Clinical; D004358:Drug Therapy / Q000451:nursing*; D005260:Female; D006699:Home Care Services; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009732:Nursing Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult