Enhancing participant safety through electronically generated medication order sets in a clinical research environment: a medical informatics initiative

Clin Transl Sci. 2010 Dec;3(6):312-5. doi: 10.1111/j.1752-8062.2010.00240.x.

Abstract

While clinical medicine is often well supported by health system information technology infrastructure, clinical research may need to create strategies to use clinical-medicine informational technology tools. The authors describe a medication-safety initiative that was carried out in a National Institutes of Health Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA)-sponsored clinical research environment. A web based, medical informatics application was designed and implemented that allowed research groups to build protocol specific, electronic medication templates that were subsequently used to create participant-specific medication order sets for conductance of clinical research activities in the CTSA-sponsored clinical research environment. The medical informatics initiative eliminated typewritten or handwritten medication orders, created research protocol-specific templates meeting institutional order-writing requirements, and formalized a rigorous review and approval process. Enhancing safety in medication ordering and prescribing practices in a clinical research environment provided the background for multidisciplinary cooperation in medical informatics.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Biomedical Research / organization & administration*
  • Electronic Prescribing*
  • Humans
  • Medical Informatics / methods*
  • Medical Informatics / organization & administration*
  • Medication Systems / organization & administration*
  • Safety Management / organization & administration*