Drug/drug interactions are considered preventable errors. With the advent of electronic prescribing, the hope was that software would warn prescribers about interactions between one or more drugs that the patient is taking, and these alerts are common. They are so ubiquitous, in fact, that alerts are often overridden in the prescribing process. Clinicians cannot rely on prescribing software to ...

INTRODUCTION To ensure safe, effective and rational prescribing by tomorrow's doctors it is important to assess the prescribing skills of today's medical students. The aim of this study was to assess the prescribing skills of MBBS preclinical students of a Teaching Hospital. METHODS First and second year medical students were given different sets of common clinical scenarios and asked to writ...

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...

Unlike sub-optimal prescribing, rational prescribing, coupled with certain indicators, is associated with improved safety in drug use in terms of selecting appropriate drug for prescribing, better quality of life for patients and cost-effective care. Medication prescribing is a relatively unexplored area of research in Saudi Arabia and until now most studies have been in the secondary and terti...

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...

BACKGROUND: There is a small, but growing body of literature highlighting inequities in GP practice prescribing rates for many drug therapies. The aim of this paper is to further explore the equity of prescribing for five major CHD drug groups and to explain the amount of variation in GP practice prescribing rates that can be explained by a range of healthcare needs indicators (HCNIs). METHODS:...

Drug Prescribing for Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease in General Practice: a Cross-Sectional Study

BACKGROUND General practice accounts for the vast majority of drug prescribing in the Nordic countries. Various methods have been used to promote rational drug prescribing. Awareness of own prescribing profile may be a first crucial step in the quality assessment and improvement process. AIM OF THE STUDY To analyse awareness among general practitioners of their drug prescribing profile during...