title: Effects of Shared Electronic Health Record Systems on Drug-Drug Interaction and Duplication Warning Detection.
abstract: Shared electronic health records (EHRs) systems can offer a complete medication overview of the prescriptions of different health care providers. We use health claims data of more than 1 million Austrians in 2006 and 2007 with 27 million prescriptions to estimate the effect of shared EHR systems on drug-drug interaction (DDI) and duplication warnings detection and prevention. The Austria Codex and the ATC/DDD information were used as a knowledge base to detect possible DDIs. DDIs are categorized as severe, moderate, and minor interactions. In comparison to the current situation where only DDIs between drugs issued by a single health care provider can be checked, the number of warnings increases significantly if all drugs of a patient are checked: severe DDI warnings would be detected for 20% more persons, and the number of severe DDI warnings and duplication warnings would increase by 17%. We show that not only do shared EHR systems help to detect more patients with warnings but DDIs are also detected more frequently. Patient safety can be increased using shared EHR systems.
authors.affiliation: Center for Medical Statistics, Informatics and Intelligent Systems, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rinner
authors.affiliation: Research Group Scientific Computing, University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Wilfried
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Grossmann
authors.affiliation: Center for Medical Statistics, Informatics and Intelligent Systems, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Simone Katja
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Sauter
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wolzt
authors.affiliation: Center for Medical Statistics, Informatics and Intelligent Systems, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gall
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016907:Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Systems; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001317:Austria; D004347:Drug Interactions / Q000502:physiology*; D064420:Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions / Q000517:prevention & control*; D057286:Electronic Health Records; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D051188:Knowledge Bases; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055815:Young Adult