Using computer technology to detect, measure, and prevent adverse drug events

Abstract

Two outstanding articles in this issue of the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association ( JAMIA ) provide exciting quantitative findings about how adverse drug events (ADEs) are detected and measured and might be prevented using computerized methods.1,2 The articles use different populations and methods yet are complementary in their findings and in their suggestions of methods for preventing ADEs. In a 2003 Journal of the American Medical Association publication, Gurwitz et al.3 outlined their measurement of the incidence and preventability of ADEs in older people in an ambulatory setting. They found that ADEs are common and often preventable in the older ambulatory population. Then, in the current issue of JAMIA , Field et al. evaluate strategies to better detect ADEs among older people in the ambulatory setting.1 They used multiple signals to detect ADEs, including computer-generated signals. They found that computer-generated signals were the source of 31% of the ADEs detected and were the source of 37% of the preventable ADEs. They also found that voluntary reporting of ADEs by health care providers was inadequate and that multiple strategies for detection and prevention of ADEs are needed. The paper …