Zum Einsatz von Informationstechnologie zur Verbesserung der Arzneimitteltherapiesicherheit (Memorandum AMTS-IT)

[english] Information technology in health care has a clear potential to improve quality and efficiency of health care, especially in the area of medication processes. On the other side, existing studies show possible adverse effects on patient safety when IT for medication-related processes is developed, introduced or used inappropriately. The objective of this paper is to summarize definitions and observations on IT usage in pharmacotherapy, and to derive recommendations and future research priorities for decision makers and domain experts. The recommendations address, among others, a stepwise and comprehensive strategy for IT usage in medication processes, the integration of contextual information for alert generation, the involvement of patients, the semantic integration of information resources, usability and adaptability of IT solutions and the need for their continuous evaluation.