Computer-assisted clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) are important for patient safety as they support clinicians in prescribing and dispensing medication in connection with a person’s electronic health record. All types of CDSSs are designed to have warning tools to prevent errors in drug therapy, yet there is much variability as to what these tools contain and how they are implemented across different systems, countries and medicinal product knowledge bases. New international guidance has just been published to harmonize the requirements and have everyone speaking the same language.
ISO/TS 22703, Health informatics – Requirements for medication safety alerts, specifies the requirements for medication safety alert systems and the topics which alert system vendors must consider. It covers the terminology used in medication safety alerts, the requirements for choosing a knowledge base for medication safety alert systems, functionality, display, quality measurements and more.
The technical specification is useful for healthcare organizations, vendors and implementors of systems with medication safety alerts or those who provide information for the alerts.
ISO/TS 22703 was developed by ISO technical committee ISO/TC 215, Health informatics, whose secretariat is held by ANSI, ISO’s member for the USA. It can be purchased from your national ISO member or the ISO Store.