Rational prescribing increases the quality of health care and patient outcomes. In this study, the quality of drug prescription in specialist physicians in Isfahan province of Iran was assessed for evaluating the rational use of drugs and improving the therapeutic outcomes. This retrospective survey was conducted on a total of 7999530 prescriptions from all general and specialist physicians. Th...

BACKGROUND In most countries, one of the main reasons for developing more advanced roles for nurses is to improve access to care in the context of limited number of doctors. It is considered that the introduction of major policy initiatives, such as nurse prescribing, requires high-level discussion and policy development to ensure successful implementation. This study aimed to identify the barr...

OBJECTIVE To explore types of e-prescribing errors in community pharmacies and their potential consequences, as well as the factors that contribute to e-prescribing errors. METHODS Data collection involved performing 45 total hours of direct observations in five pharmacies. Follow-up interviews were conducted with 20 study participants. Transcripts from observations and interviews were subjec...

BACKGROUND Differences in Multiple sclerosis (MS) disease-modifying therapy (DMT) prescribing patterns between different groups of neurologists have not been explored. OBJECTIVE To examine concentrations of prescribing patterns and to assess if MS-specialists use a broader range of DMTs relative to general neurologists. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional study using administrative claim...

BACKGROUND Whether written feedback on drug prescribing in general practice affects prescribing habits is controversial. Most short-term studies showed no effect. However, the issue has not been tested in long-term studies involving the local general practitioner community. AIMS OF THE STUDY To assess whether prescribing levels in general practice are affected by long-term, unsolicited, syste...

Cancer can be treated by surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormonal therapy, and targeted therapy. The choice of treatment dependson the type and stage of the cancer. Chemotherapy drugs play an important role in cancer treatment. The objective of this interview-questionnaire study is to explore what influences Iranian hematologists-oncologists’ prescription when prescribing chemotherapy...

BACKGROUND Prescribing errors occur in up to 15% of UK inpatient medication orders. However, junior doctors report insufficient feedback on errors. A barrier preventing feedback is that individual prescribers often cannot be clearly identified on prescribing documentation. AIM To reduce prescribing errors in a UK hospital by improving feedback on prescribing errors. INTERVENTIONS We develop...

BACKGROUND Medical specialists are often seen as the first prescribers of new drugs. However, the extent to which specialists influence new drug prescribing in primary care is largely unknown. METHODS This study estimates the influence of medical specialists on new drug prescribing in primary care shortly after market introduction. The influence of medical specialists on prescribing of five n...

OBJECTIVES Countries generally present their overall use of antibiotics as an indicator of antibiotic prescribing quality. Additional insight is urgently needed for targeted improvement recommendations: first, data on specific clinical indications for which antibiotics are used, and second, on distinguishing whether changes in patient consultation or changes in physician prescribing drive chang...