DDI Conference

The conference Generating, Evaluating, and Implementing Evidence for Drug-Drug Interactions in Health Information Technology to Improve Patient Safety: A Multi-Stakeholder Conference was held Oct. 13– 14, 2009, at the U.S. Pharmacopeia Meetings Center, Rockville, Maryland.

Presentations

For links to written materials used by presenters at the conference, go to DDI Conference Session Materials.

Conference Background

Drug-drug interactions (DDI) are a preventable medication error; however, each year millions of Americans are exposed to clinically important interactions.  Incorporating evidence for drug interactions into health technology systems is occurring with marginal improvements in safety. 

Goals and Specific Aims

The long-term goal is to improve the DDI evidence base and its utilization to ultimately decrease the occurrence of preventable medical errors.  The specific aims were to:

1. Formulate methods to evaluate and improve DDI evidence base;
2. Design mechanisms to communicate DDI evidence to providers & consumers via health information technology;
3. Develop and disseminate recommendations for evaluating and improving evidence for DDIs and integrating this information into health information technology.

Funding

This project was funded by a grant (1R13HS018307-01) from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect the official position of AHRQ or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Funds to help support this conference were graciously donated by Epocrates; First DataBank; Gold Standard; LexiComp; Micromedex; PharmaSURVEYOR; and Wolters Kluwer.

For more information about this conference, contact Amy Grizzle at grizzle@pharmacy.arizona.edu or 520-626-4721.

Drug-drug interaction conference paves the way for additional research

Researchers from the Arizona Center for Education and Research on Therapeutics (AzCERT) at the College of Pharmacy conducted a conference entitled, "Generating, Evaluating, and Implementing Evidence for Drug-Drug Interactions in Health Information Technology to Improve Patient Safety: A Multi-Stakeholder Conference."

The overall goal was to improve the drug-drug interaction (DDI) evidence base and its utilization. The conference was held Oct. 13-14, 2009 at the U.S. Pharmacopeia Meetings Center in Rockville, MD.

 Individuals representing diverse groups

 of stakeholders were invited to attend.

 The sixty participants represented

 consumers; individual healthcare

 providers (professional organizations

 representing prescribers and

 pharmacists); government agencies

 and nonprofit organizations responsible

 for medication safety; and manufacturers

 of  DDI compendia, pharmacy systems,

 and electronic prescribing.

The conference addressed current challenges with the DDI evidence base and clinical decision support. Several potential strategies such as consistent evaluation of the DDI literature and improving the practical utility of DDI evidence and clinical decision aids were identified as possible mechanisms for addressing some of the current challenges faced by the stakeholders.  

The AzCERT researchers are optimistic that the conference findings will increase awareness, promote further discussion about DDI evidence and decision making, and generate timely research in this area. More specifically, research is needed to maximize the value of DDI clinical decision support used for electronic prescribing and pharmacy systems thereby minimizing alert fatigue and ultimately improving patient safety.

A summary of the conference discussion, findings, and future directions will be posted on the HOPE Center website soon.

Researchers for this project included: Dan Malone, Lisa Hines, Lynne Mascarella, Amy Grizzle, John Murphy, and Ann Taylor.
 

This conference was funded by a grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (1R13HS018307-01). The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect the official position of AHRQ or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Additional support was funded by partnering with the following companies:

• Epocrates
• First DataBank
• Gold Standard
• LexiComp
• Thomson Reuters
• Wolters Kluwer