[Surveillance of adverse reactions of drugs and monitoring of drug prescriptions as routine in hospital activities].

Abstract

Since January 1988 is taking place a multicentre experience on pharmaco-epidemiology named ARIES (Adverse Reaction Identification Evaluation System), with two primary aims: surveillance of drug adverse reactions and monitoring of medical prescriptions. At present 5 departments of internal medicine are involved in the study. The factual cooperation of the departmental doctors depends on the evaluation of benefits and costs of the study. The benefits for doctor are: (a) the possibility of contributing to the research in a field which has not been systematically investigated in a hospital setting; b) the acquisition of skill in monitoring adverse reactions: to facilitate doctors cooperation an algorithm has been developed to select the events to be entered into the system; c) the possibility of evaluating and improving the prescription habits. At present, data on 9,000 patients and 60,000 prescriptions are available. As an example of utilization study, we report a research on antibiotics prescribed for bronchopneumonia in two departments involved in the ARIES project. The remarkable differences in the prescription settings lead to some rethinking on the strategies of such different prescription choices. In each department, the contribution of doctors is integrated by a monitor, entering additional information on drugs and patients into the system. Thanks to the cooperation of doctors and contribution of monitors, the pharmaco-epidemiology research may become a "normal" component of the hospital activities, thus allowing to systematically retrieve and process some basic knowledges, which are not routinely used, derived from the daily activity of the departmental doctor.

• Authors: I Maistrello, F Bissoli, G Croce, S Fassina, V Michela, R Giuliani
• Journal: Recenti progressi in medicina (Recenti Prog Med) Vol. 82 Issue 4 Pg. 197-201 (Apr 1991) ISSN: 0034-1193 [Print] Italy
• Vernacular Title: La sorveglianza delle reazioni avverse da farmaci e il monitoraggio delle prescrizioni mediche come attività "normali" di reparti ospedalieri.
• PMID: 1857838 (Publication Type: Clinical Trial, Comparative Study, English Abstract, Journal Article, Multicenter Study, Review)

Topics

• Drug Prescriptions
• Drug Utilization
• Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions
• Hospitals
• Humans
• Italy
• Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations