Nursing home physicians use mobile devices to prevent adverse drug events

A study published last month in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association (JAMDA) showed that nursing home physicians who use mobile devices equipped with drug reference software are better able to prevent adverse drug events.

Based on the results of a survey conducted by a team of researchers headed by Steven M. Handler, MD, PhD, the study found that 42%, or 236 of the 558 respondents, use mobile devices to assist with prescribing in their nursing homes.

The researchers also reported: "For those who used a mobile device to assist with prescribing, almost all (98%) reported performing an average of one or more drug look-ups per day, performed an average of one to two lookups per day for potential drug-drug interactions (DDIs), and most (88%) believed that drug reference software had helped to prevent at least one potential ADE in the preceding 4-week period."

Not surprisingly, younger physicians—those with 15 years or less of clinical experience—were 67% more likely to use mobile devices than those with more than 15 years clinical experience.

And while the researchers concluded that a significant percentage of nursing home physicians use mobile devices with drug reference software, the number is lower than in other clinical environments, they said.