Designing digital documents to support medication management

Abstract

The lack of electronic decision support is an emerging issue for pharmacists in Australia involved in medication reviews. A digital document approach allows a flexible means of communicating and sharing medication-related information through a simple, easy-to-use artefact. This document-centric approach is also a comfortable fit with health professionals’ existing practice, and suggests practice improvements in safety, quality and efficiency of the medication management process. Our research has also identified factors which influence how decision support tools should be modelled and implemented - missing information, using conversation for information exchange, the effect of information granularity on model development, the ‘perspective’ of practice tools; and the level of technology use. Our research approach advocates that an essential information model provides a complement to specialist knowledge and contextual decision-making by pharmacists and doctors – providing ‘systems for experts’, rather than expert systems – and may offer an effective way forward using ‘lightweight’ technology.