Int J Pharm Pract 1997:5:105-10

School of Pharmacy, King's College London
Derek Balon, PhD, FRPharmS teacher-practitioner

Welsh School of Pharmacy, University of Wales, Redwood Building, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, Wales CF1 3XF
Robert G Stevens, PhD, MRPharmS, lecturer in pharmacology

Correspondence: Dr Stevens

General articles

Design of a computer program for automatic capture of adverse drug interaction and contraindication data detected during prescription labelling

D. BALON and R. G. STEVENS

This article describes the design of a computer program for the automatic recording and analysis of all potentially harmful incidents identified during prescription labelling after reference to data held in patient medication records (PMRs). Information extracted from the British National Formulary (BNF) is incorporated into the program, which provides warnings of potential drug/drug interactions and drugs contraindicated for patients belonging to particular age groups or suffering from specific clinical conditions or allergies. Individual clinical patient data are stored in patient profiles within the PMRs. Access to the monitoring software is provided by a purpose-built labelling program. Unlike other systems, the program requires the pharmacist to enter information about the action taken in response to any warnings generated before it permits the labelling procedure to continue. Data relating to the warnings and the action taken by the pharmacist are captured automatically and stored for later analysis.