title: A mobile medicine decision support system for district nurses.
abstract: 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.
authors: The eHealth Institute and the School of Pure and Applied Natural Sciences, University of Kalmar, Kalmar, Sweden. pauline.johansson@hik.se
authors: Pauline
authors: P
authors: Johansson
authors: Göran
authors: G
authors: Petersson
authors: Gunilla
authors: G
authors: Nilsson
mesh_terms: 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