Physicians: Mobile Devices Help Reduce Adverse Drug Events

Doctors say that using mobile devices when prescribing drugs can help reduce the number of adverse drug events in nursing homes.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh interviewed 800 physicians and found that 560 of them used a mobile device as part of prescribing drugs in the nursing home setting. Of those 560, 88 percent felt that the use of drug reference software on their mobile devices had helped prevent at least one adverse drug event in the previous month.

The researchers noted that doctors in the nursing home setting are less likely to use mobile devices than physicians in other clinical settings. They also added that younger doctors (those with 15 years or fewer of clinical experience) are 67 percent more likely to use mobile devices than their older peers. Those who are using the mobile devices for drug look-ups do so frequently, with 98 percent saying they do so at least once a day.

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