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Successful strategy to improve the specificity of electronic statin–drug interaction alerts

  • Pharmacoepidemiology and Prescription
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European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

A considerable weakness of current clinical decision support systems managing drug–drug interactions (DDI) is the high incidence of inappropriate alerts. Because DDI-induced, dose-dependent adverse events can be prevented by dosage adjustment, corresponding DDI alerts should only be issued if dosages exceed safe limits. We have designed a logical framework for a DDI alert-system that considers prescribed dosage and retrospectively evaluates the impact on the frequency of statin–drug interaction alerts.

Methods

Upper statin dose limits were extracted from the drug label (SPC) (20 statin-drug combinations) or clinical trials specifying the extent of the pharmacokinetic interaction (43 statin–drug combinations). We retrospectively assessed electronic DDI alerts and compared the number of standard alerts to alerts that took dosage into account.

Results

From among 2457 electronic prescriptions, we identified 73 high-risk statin–drug pairs. Of these, SPC dosage information classified 19 warnings as inappropriate. Data from pharmacokinetic trials took quantitative dosage information more often into consideration and classified 40 warnings as inappropriate. This is a significant reduction in the number of alerts by 55% compared to SPC-based information (26%; p < 0.001).

Conclusion

This retrospective study of pharmacokinetic statin interactions demonstrates that more than half of the DDI alerts that presented in a clinical decision support system were inappropriate if DDI-specific upper dose limits are not considered.

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Acknowledgments

The work was supported in part by the chamber of pharmacists, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine VI, Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacoepidemiology, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

    Hanna Marita Seidling, Caroline Henrike Storch, Thilo Bertsche, Christian Senger, Jens Kaltschmidt, Ingeborg Walter-Sack & Walter Emil Haefeli

  2. Cooperation Unit Clinical Pharmacy, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

    Hanna Marita Seidling, Thilo Bertsche & Walter Emil Haefeli

  3. Im Neuenheimer Feld 410, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany

    Walter Emil Haefeli

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  1. Hanna Marita Seidling
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  2. Caroline Henrike Storch
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  7. Walter Emil Haefeli
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Correspondence to Walter Emil Haefeli.

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Hanna Marita Seidling and Caroline Henrike Storch contributed equally to the work

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Seidling, H.M., Storch, C.H., Bertsche, T. et al. Successful strategy to improve the specificity of electronic statin–drug interaction alerts. Eur J Clin Pharmacol 65, 1149–1157 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00228-009-0704-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00228-009-0704-x

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