Quality of interaction database management systems

Evaluation of three brands of drug interaction software for use in intensive care units

“…The growing concern with drug interactions led to the development of a large number of programs to identify drug interactions in medical prescriptions in the hospital, community pharmacy, and outpatient settings [20].…”

“…Therefore, software to be used in this setting should have a significant number of drugs registered in its database and periodically incorporate new therapeutic agents. The employment of imported software might lead to problems of drug interaction identification if there are discrepancies between the medications available in the pharmaceutical market where the software was developed and the ones in which it is to be used [20]. This fact reinforces the importance of evaluating the medications registered in drug interaction software.…”

“…From this perspective, appropriate bibliographic references and periodic updating are also important. Considering the discrepancies in the methods used to classify evidence observed in the studied software programs (Table 4) and in other investigations, standardization of criteria is suggested by adopting scales developed according to evidence-based medicine [10,20].…”

Clinical Relevance of Drug Interactions in HIV-Infected Patients Receiving Antiretroviral Therapy

“…Thus, the software meets the requirements defined for this type of programs. (Gaikwad et al, 2007;Rodríguez et al, 2009) d. Software implementation. The program, posterior to entering drug treatment of a specific patient, generate the list of possible interactions with clinical relevance, accompanied by the suggestion of the most appropriate process to be followed by the healthcare professional user of the program.…”

“…The scaling of these 1,082 drug pairs of recognized DIs, according to different dosage forms and strengths of identified drugs, generates a total of 6,087 pairs of DIs, in which, according their clinical relevance, 4,158 (68.3%) are clinical relevant (Levels 1 and 2) in HIV-infected patients receiving ARV therapy. Thus, the designed software meets the requirements defined for this type of program (Gaikwad et al, 2007;Rodríguez et al, 2009) and most important it facilitates the assessment, prediction, and decision on clinical relevance of 4,158 ARV DIs, which are considered of clinical interest in patients with HIV/AIDS (levels 1 and 2). Based on the pharmacological mechanism that explains the non-therapeutic and quantitative modification in the magnitude or duration of the drug effect, the DI may be classified as:  Pharmacokinetic DI: The non-therapeutic and quantitative modification in the magnitude or duration of the drug effect is explained mainly by a change in the drug plasma concentration associate with substance or situation that causes the DI.…”