Overriding Drug-Drug Interaction Alerts in Clinical Decision Support Systems: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Ineffective computerized alerts for potential Drug-Drug Interactions (DDI) is a longstanding informatics issue. Prescribing clinicians often ignore or override such alerts due to lack of context and clinical relevance, among various other reasons. In this study, we reveiwed published data on the rate of DDI alert overrides and medications involved in the overrides. We identified 34 eligible studies from sites across Asia, Europe, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The override rate of DDI alerts ranged from 55% to 98%, with more than half of the studies reporting the most common drug pairs or medications involved in acceptance or overriding of alerts. The high prevalance of alert overrides highlights the need for decision support systems that take user, drug, and institutional factors into consideration, as well as actionable metrics to better characterize harm associated with overrides.