title: Impact of the drug-drug interaction database SFINX on prevalence of potentially serious drug-drug interactions in primary health care.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the impact of the integration of the drug-drug interaction database SFINX into primary health care records on the prevalence of potentially serious drug-drug interactions.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was a controlled before-and-after study on the prevalence of potential drug-drug interactions before and after the implementation of SFINX at 15 primary healthcare centres compared with 5 centres not receiving the intervention. Data on dispensed prescriptions from health care centres were retrieved from the Swedish prescribed drug register and analysed for September-December 2006 (pre-intervention) and September-December 2007 (post-intervention). All drugs dispensed during each 4 month period were regarded as potentially interacting.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Use of SFINX was associated with a 17% decrease, to 1.81 × 10(-3) from 2.15 × 10(-3) interactions per prescribed drug-drug pair, in the prevalence of potentially serious drug-drug interactions (p = 0.042), whereas no significant effect was observed in the control group. The change in prevalence of potentially serious drug-drug interactions did not differ significantly between the two study groups. The majority of drug-drug interactions identified were related to chelate formation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Prescriptions resulting in potentially serious drug-drug interactions were significantly reduced after integration of the drug-drug interaction database SFINX into electronic health records in primary care. Further studies are needed to demonstrate the effectiveness of drug-drug interaction warning systems.
authors: Department of Laboratory Medicine, Division of Clinical Pharmacology, Karolinska University Hospital, Huddinge, Karolinska Institutet, 141 86 Stockholm, Sweden. marine.andersson@karolinska.se
authors: M L
authors: ML
authors: Andersson
authors: Y
authors: Y
authors: Böttiger
authors: J D
authors: JD
authors: Lindh
authors: B
authors: B
authors: Wettermark
authors: B
authors: B
authors: Eiermann
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016907:Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Systems; D000368:Aged; D016208:Databases, Factual; D004347:Drug Interactions; D011307:Drug Prescriptions; D064420:Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D051188:Knowledge Bases; D008297:Male; D050316:Medical Order Entry Systems; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D015995:Prevalence; D011320:Primary Health Care; D015397:Program Evaluation; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D013997:Time Factors