Internet of Things as support to reduce hospital errors related to medication administration

Abstract

Objective: The high potential of digital technologies to reduce medication errors in patients hospitalized or under hospital care was explored in this investigation. The study identifies common types of medication errors and their probable causes. Furthermore, examines the technological innovation solutions available that have not yet been applied in this context, specifically the Internet of Things usage to reduce medication errors through a practical example. Methods: A rapid review was applied, exploring the papers from two databases. The analysis was limited to the period from 2017 to 2021, resulting in 147 articles from the VHL Regional Portal – Virtual Health Library and 257 articles from the PubMed database. Results: There were analyzed 40 studies. An error mapping related to the theme was made. Also, the technology application and their effectiveness were identified in the studies. According to the research, inattention or distraction due to the excessive journey of work was pointed out as the main reason that leads to medication errors with the systems employed. Conclusion: There are several opportunities to improve hospital procedures with new technological approaches. By implementing innovative technologies, hospital medication errors can be managed more efficiently and reduce costs and waste with errors medication.

A computer architecture based on disruptive information technologies for drug management in hospitals

“…The third novelty of this proposal regarding the state of the art is the comparative study of the different solutions for labelling and reading data on drug packages (IoT, RFID UHF, RFID NFC and barcodes/QR), considering economic as well as operational and environmental aspects. The results improve the state of the art since existing studies do not compare the four possibilities together ( Liu et al, 2022 ; Ruan et al, 2018 ; Camacho-Cogollo, Bone & Iadanza, 2020 ; Lee et al, 2019 ; Haddara & Staaby, 2018 ; Ebrahimzadeh et al, 2021 ; Vagaš et al, 2019 ; Ko & Woo, 2018 ; Zhang, Fu & Li, 2019 ; Buthelez et al, 2022 ; Cocian, Morales & Schneider, 2023 ; Petro et al, 2009 ; Iadanza, 2012 ; Wu, Kuo & Liu, 2005 ; Bevilacqua et al, 2013 ). In contrast, this study has analysed the four technologies and has shown the advantages and disadvantages of Barcode/QR, RFID and IoT for drug management in hospitals.…”

“…However, the use of IoT for drug management in hospitals is scarce. Although some studies related to drug management and IoT have been conducted, they are focused on activities outside the hospital ( Cocian, Morales & Schneider, 2023 ). Such applications are mainly concerned with tracking the logistics of medical products ( Nanda, Panda & Dash, 2023 ) and remote monitoring of medication behaviours of patients once they have left the hospital ( Roh et al, 2021 ).…”