title: Relevance of drug-drug interaction in the ICU - perceptions of intensivists and pharmacists.
abstract: Relevancy of potential drug-drug interactions (pDDIs) is crucial in alerting system design. However, the way this relevancy is perceived is not well understood. The main objective of this study was to gauge and identify differences in perceptions of intensivists and pharmacists about pDDI relevancy in the ICU. Interactions were defined according to the national medication database using a computerized algorithm. Intensivists and pharmacists filled in a questionnaire to score their perceptions on relevancy of encountered pDDIs types. We conducted a focus group session to discuss pDDIs receiving markedly different relevancy scores. The questionnaire addressed 53 pDDI types. Pharmacists rated 29 pDDI types (54.7%) in the broad category "relevant" versus 16 (30.2%) for intensivists (p-value&lt;0.001). The pharmacists and intensivists gave the same scores for 23 pDDI types (12 as relevant, and 11 as not relevant), and scored 30 types differently. The focus group discussion resulted in a total of 36 relevant and 17 not relevant types. Compared to the pharmacists in this panel, the intensivists were less inclined to consider a pDDI type as relevant. It is important to tailor medication databases with information about evidence and severity of pDDIs to the environment in which they are used.
authors.affiliation: Dep. of Medical Informatics, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. m.askari@amc.uva.nl
authors.forename: Marjan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Askari
authors.forename: Saied
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Eslami
authors.forename: Mathijs
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Louws
authors.forename: Dave
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dongelmans
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wierenga
authors.forename: Rob
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kuiper
authors.forename: Ameen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Abu-Hanna
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004347:Drug Interactions; D064420:Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009426:Netherlands; D010595:Pharmacists / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010820:Physicians / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires