DUE Software Highlights Therapeutic Issues: Drug use evaluation systems concurrently review prescribing criteria and patient medication history to identify potential drug therapy problems.

Abstract

Drug use evaluation (DUE) or drug use review (DUR) for the ambulatory care setting is creating many opportunities to improve the pharmaceutical care provided by pharmacists. This study documents one year of peer-review interventions based on a retrospective drug utilization review software system (Qualisure, Q-A, Inc.) that screens patient profiles for a high likelihood of drug therapy problems. Letters are written to physicians and pharmacists providing care to these patients. The software identifles frequent opportunities for selecting therapeutic class alternatives to prescribed agents. Antibiotics, antihistamines, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and antidepressants were the classes for which therapeutic class alternatives were most often recommended.