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Enhance prescription review: artificial intelligence to improve efficiency and safety drug therapies

European Statement

Clinical Pharmacy Services

Author(s)

Ana Helena Ulbrich, Amanda Fonseca, Catherine Isoppo, Henrique Dias

Why was it done?

The motivation behind NoHarm stemmed from the time-consuming nature of the prescription review process, which required clinical pharmacists to assess not only drug interactions but also factors such as appropriateness, effectiveness, safety, adherence, and affordability of drug therapies. NoHarm was envisioned as a solution to systematize the workflow and provide cross-referencing of essential drug and inpatient information, thereby addressing these issues.

What was done?

The NoHarm initiative was developed to address challenges faced by clinical pharmacy teams during the prescription review process in a hospital setting. This open-source intelligent system was introduced to enhance the medication review process. The initiative was executed in a 420-bed public hospital in Brazil over a 17-month period to evaluate its impact on prescription reviews.

How was it done?

The implementation of NoHarm involved integrating the system with the hospital’s electronic health records to collect and compute all inpatient data. NoHarm utilized a drug knowledge base and intelligent algorithms to identify and alert healthcare professionals about inpatient risks. The algorithms were designed to cross-reference patient laboratory results with drug thresholds, adjust for liver and renal function, analyze drug usage patterns at the hospital, and extract patient risk factors from clinical notes, including diseases, adverse events, symptoms, and biometric data.

What has been achieved?

The number of medications assessed increased dramatically from 17,000 to 2,643,957 within the 17-month period, all while maintaining the same team size. Improved prescription review rates, rising from 65% to 94%, demonstrate the effectiveness of the system. Furthermore, these improvements in prescription reviews resulted in better clinical pharmacy services and contributed to reducing medication errors and associated risks in patient care at the hospital.

What next?

NoHarm is an open-source solution and an example of good practice in healthcare due to its achievements in streamlining prescription reviews and enhancing patient safety. Its successful implementation led to increased efficiency, higher prescription review rates, and substantial cost savings, showing its potential as a model for other healthcare settings. Its prospective global applicability makes it a solution to address medication errors and elevate the standard of care in healthcare institutions worldwide.

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