Electronic Medicinal Product Interaction System

When issuing electronic prescriptions, health professionals can check the interaction of the prescribed medicinal products with other medicinal products the patient is taking in the electronic system. This service is available to all healthcare institutions that use the Information System of Electronic Health Services and Collaboration Infrastructure (ESPBI IS).

The compatibility of medicinal products is checked automatically at the time of issuing e-prescription. 

This system is not only an additional safeguard for patients’ health, but also a useful tool for health professionals who do not have to spend time searching for information when a patient is taking several different medicinal products, when new medicinal products are prescribed, or when a rare medicinal product interaction is possible. This is especially true when a patient is often prescribed medicinal products by several doctors. All this is now visible and checked in the ESPBI system.

The main aim of the system is to reduce the number of adverse health effects resulting from medicinal product incompatibilities and to make the work of health professionals easier.

About the medicinal product interaction system:

• The medicinal product interaction system contains information on 20,000 different medicinal product interactions, based on data from the Department of Clinical Pharmacology at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, Stockholm County Council and Finnish universities.
• Information on medicinal products and their combinations is updated in the system’s database four times a year, based on the latest studies, ranging between 1,000 and 1,500 each year.
• This system is also in place in healthcare institutions and pharmacies and is used daily in Sweden, Finland, Germany, Austria, Italy and, since 2016, in Estonia.

 

Clinical relevance of medicinal product interactions for Lithuanian doctors

The aim of integrating electronic medicinal product interaction checking functionality into the Lithuanian eHealth system is to ensure that doctors’ daily practice is evidence-based, to improve the quality of services provided by healthcare institutions, and to enhance patient safety. This medicinal product interaction checking service consists of two integrated components: 
Automatic alerts. Notifications of clinically relevant pharmacokinetic medicinal product interactions are automatically displayed in the healthcare facility’s information system and in the Specialist Portal of the Information System of Electronic Health Services and Collaboration Infrastructure (ESPBI IS) when the doctor selects medicinal products. The notifications provide information about the possible consequences of each medicinal product interaction with another medicinal product and recommendations on what to do if such an interaction is detected. Each notification has a link to a web page with a more detailed description of the interaction. 
Website: https://www.vaistas.med24.lt. This website allows doctors to analyse medicinal products and potential interactions in detail without using patient data. In addition to pharmacokinetic interactions, the website also contains information on pharmacodynamic interactions (including changes in effects at the receptor, target organ level, and if the interaction manifests itself as an adverse effect on another organ or their systems). 
You can find out more about the medicinal product interaction screening service by clicking on the link and view a presentation on the clinical relevance of medicinal product interactions.