Validation of a Computerized Decision Support System To Review Pharmacotherapy Treatment: Scheduling Guidelines

Abstract

Background In the pharmacotherapy review process, the pharmacist needs to list various information about the patient and the set of medications he will use, information that is never available at the point of care. Methods The aim of the study was to validate an intelligent information system, which was developed to assist the scheduling activity in the pharmacotherapy review process. The system used the concept of Genetic Algorithms. To validate it, appointments of hypothetical cases (ten) were made by the system and by human specialists. These schedules were qualitatively evaluated by pharmaceutical specialists with clinical and research experience in the pharmacotherapy review process. The degree of agreement between the assessments of the appointments carried out by the pharmaceutical specialists and by the system were measured using the Kappa index with a 95% confidence interval. Results In detecting errors, propositions, the system was able to identify 80% of errors, with human specialists identifying between 20% and 70% of errors. In relation to the general evaluation, the system obtained 87,3% of the compared evaluations, with the human specialist who came closest to this index obtained 75,5%. Conclusion It can be concluded that with the methodology used, the investigation met the objectives and confirmed the initial hypothesis. There are indications that the system can help in the Pharmacotherapy review process, being able to find prescription errors as well as to establish times for the use of medications according to the patient’s routine.