OBJECTIVE: To effectively locate the drugs most implicated in severe interactions as a basis of designing actions to improve patient safety in Primary Care. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study of prescriptions using the Primary Care computerised medical records database (OMI-PC). SETTING: Murcia (Spain) Health Areas I, VI, VII and IX (723,664 inhabitants). PARTICIPANTS: There are 362,271 patients over 14 years-old available in the OMI-PC and are assigned to a doctor who uses the OMI-PC regularly. MAIN MEASUREMENTS: We analysed the drugs that each patient could be taking, looking for severe interactions. We constructed a severe interaction hazard scale (e-PIG) calculating [1] the probability that a non-selected patient may be taking a particular drug and [2] the probability that a drug may produce a severe interaction. With this, we estimated the risk of producing a severe interaction for each drug, which was converted into a 5 point logarithmic scale. RESULTS: We found 83,138 patients (22.9%) at risk (they took 2 or more drugs). We identified 466,940 prescriptions providing 939 drugs and 5,597 severe interactions (prevalence 5.8%). In these, 167 drugs were involved, of which e-PIG identified 5 (3%) with an extreme value: omeprazole, diazepam, acenocoumarol, ibuprofen and calcium. CONCLUSIONS: e-PIG is a logarithmic expression of the risk that prescribing a particular drug may produce a severe interaction in a determined setting and time. Its monitoring could become a prioritisation element that may assist the design of strategies for improving the safety of the use of drugs.
OBJECTIVE: To effectively locate the drugs most implicated in severe interactions as a basis of designing actions to improve patient safety in Primary Care. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study of prescriptions using the Primary Care computerised medical records database (OMI-PC). SETTING: Murcia (Spain) Health Areas I, VI, VII and IX (723,664 inhabitants). PARTICIPANTS: There are 362,271 patients over 14 years-old available in the OMI-PC and are assigned to a doctor who uses the OMI-PC regularly. MAIN MEASUREMENTS: We analysed the drugs that each patient could be taking, looking for severe interactions. We constructed a severe interaction hazard scale (e-PIG) calculating [1] the probability that a non-selected patient may be taking a particular drug and [2] the probability that a drug may produce a severe interaction. With this, we estimated the risk of producing a severe interaction for each drug, which was converted into a 5 point logarithmic scale. RESULTS: We found 83,138 patients (22.9%) at risk (they took 2 or more drugs). We identified 466,940 prescriptions providing 939 drugs and 5,597 severe interactions (prevalence 5.8%). In these, 167 drugs were involved, of which e-PIG identified 5 (3%) with an extreme value: omeprazole, diazepam, acenocoumarol, ibuprofen and calcium. CONCLUSIONS: e-PIG is a logarithmic expression of the risk that prescribing a particular drug may produce a severe interaction in a determined setting and time. Its monitoring could become a prioritisation element that may assist the design of strategies for improving the safety of the use of drugs.
Authors: Julio J Lopez-Picazo; Juan C Ruiz; Jose F Sanchez; Angeles Ariza; Belen Aguilera; Dolores Lazaro; Gonzalo R Sanz Journal: Eur J Gen Pract Date: 2010-06 Impact factor: 1.904
Authors: Yen-Fu Chen; Anthony J Avery; Karen E Neil; Christine Johnson; Michael E Dewey; Ivan H Stockley Journal: Drug Saf Date: 2005 Impact factor: 5.606
Authors: Kate L Lapane; Molly E Waring; Karen L Schneider; Catherine Dubé; Brian J Quilliam Journal: J Gen Intern Med Date: 2008-04 Impact factor: 5.128