Information technology–based approaches to reducing repeat drug exposure in patients with known drug allergies

Characterising the nature of primary care patient safety incident reports in the England and Wales National Reporting and Learning System: a mixed-methods agenda-setting study for general practice

“…These have offered important insights that have helped shape national policy -for example, demonstrating the risks of bone cement implantation syndrome associated with use of cement in hip fracture surgery, and the potential for information technology (IT)-based interventions to reduce many cases of drug allergy-related morbidity. 26,38 Although there is substantial evidence that the NRLS can identify priority issues for intervention, there is a risk that the opportunity for learning is confined to England and Wales; a major limitation exists for comparison between health-care systems, as there is no widely used standardised taxonomy for classifying incidents in primary care settings. [39][40][41] This means that studies currently define and measure incidents differently, resulting in variations in the estimated proportions of incidents and harms.…”

Importance of the Relative Advantage of RFID as Enabler of Asset Management in the Healthcare: Results from a Delphi Study

“…Some scholars have even suggested that the adoption and effective use of IT in the healthcare sector is "a critical goal of a 21st-century healthcare system" (p. 79) [19]. IT can be used to support various activities within the healthcare sector, including the tracking of blood bags, monitoring of drug allergies [20], access to patient record transactions [21], improvement of healthcare decision making and healthcare resource allocation [22], and the facilitation of individual patient reminders and alerts [23]. In addition, IT offers prospects for the integration of patient information to promote quality of care and enhance efficiency [22].…”

“…In addition, IT offers prospects for the integration of patient information to promote quality of care and enhance efficiency [22]. More important, IT is critical in all decisions related to "managing, processing, retaining, and making accessible large amounts of disparate data to multiple end users" (p. 1113) [20]. Thus, IT and other emerging technologies are considered "the biggest levers… that will re-make healthcare for the 21st century" (p. 42) [24].…”

Unveiling the Potential of RFID-Enabled Intelligent Patient Management: Results of a Delphi Study

“…Menachemi and Brooks (2006) [15] even suggested that the adoption and use of IT in the healthcare sector is "a critical goal of a 21st-century healthcare system" (p. 79). Without a doubt, IT can be used not only to prevent or reduce the medical problems identified above, but also to track blood bags and monitor drug allergies [16], access patient records and transactions [17], and improve healthcare decision making and healthcare resources allocation [18]. Electronic health records (EHRs), for example, can be used to store and automate medical records, thus facilitating the design and storage of patient-related decision functions such as individualized patient reminders and prescribing alerts [11] (p. 159), and offering the opportunity to integrate patient information for better care quality and efficiency [18].…”

“…Bar coding, another AIDC technology, can be used to capture and manage patient-related medication information, track patient laboratory and radiology results, and track and trace blood bags [11]. Recently, however, RFID technology has emerged as a new wave of IT that may radically transform the healthcare sector [9,19] by allowing better patient identification [20], providing a better way of tracking and tracing the identity of patients within healthcare facilities [21], and reducing errors in patient care [22], as well as enabling better management of the various steps in the blood transfusion process [23], innovative management of patients with chronic conditions [16,24], a better way of checking, tracking, and tracing pharmaceutical products origin, and the management of incident audit trail between medical equipment and healthcare staff [25]. Indeed, RFID technology offers greater capabilities when compared to traditional AIDC (e.g., bar coding); this technology does not need line of sight and possesses unique item-level identification, multiple tag item reading, better data storage capability, and data read-and-write capabilities.…”