Physicians might be better able to choose the most beneficial medications for patients with software that monitors lists of drug side effects, according to a study by the Indiana University School of Medicine and the Regenstrief Institute, Healthcare IT News reports.
For the study, which appeared in the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers analyzed more than 5,600 drug labels and more than 500,000 labeled side effects.
Researchers found that the average drug label listed 70 different side effects and that more commonly prescribed drugs averaged about 100 side effects. One label listed up to 525 possible reactions.
Jon Duke — a Regenstrief Institute investigator and assistant professor of medicine at the IU School of Medicine — said all the side effects listed can “overwhelm doctors who must weigh the risks and benefits when prescribing a medication.”
Software Details
The team of investigators developed a computer program, called SPLICER, that can identify side effects in drug labels with 95% accuracy. The program also can monitor label patterns continually and detect changing trends.
Jeff Friedlin — a co-author of the study, as well as a Regenstrief investigator and assistant professor of family medicine at the school of medicine — said SPLICER can process 5,600 labels in one day on a supercomputer with about the same accuracy as a human (Merrill, Healthcare IT News, 5/24).
Conclusions
Researchers said that technology could be used to help patients know what side effects could affect them.
Duke said existing technology could help transform drug labels “from lengthy static documents to dynamic resources, capable of delivering personalized patient information.”
He added, “Such labels could take into account the individual patient’s medical conditions and highlight those side effects that could be especially dangerous” (MyHealthNewsDaily/MSNBC, 5/23).
Source: iHealthBeat
Comments are closed.
Copyright 2015 - Pulse Practice Solutions | 615.425.2719