New software aims to detect, resolve medication issues
Two Washington State University researchers recently were selected to receive a $300,000 grant that will test a novel system for empowering nurses to quickly and accurately identify and resolve medication-related problems for patients transferring from hospital to home care.
The grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) will ultimately help nurses address a longstanding problem for both patients and caregivers who need better alerts to potentially detect serious conflicts between medicines prescribed before, during, and after hospitalization.
Largest RWJF grant ever to WSU
The grant is the largest that WSU has ever received from the New Jersey-based foundation and the first research RWJF grant directly made to the WSU College of Nursing.
“Nearly three million patients are transitioned annually from hospital to home-care services, with documented risk for adverse effects from discrepancies in their medication,” said WSU College of Nursing faculty member Cindy Corbett, who will lead the research along with WSU College of Pharmacy faculty member Steve Setter. “The new grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will help us conduct a thorough clinical trial of a new software system we have been developing to improve nurses’ abilities to detect and resolve potentially harmful drug combinations in a timely manner.”
Goal to ensure patients receive safe medication
The software under development will be an electronic decision support tool to facilitate comparison of hospital discharge medications with medications patients report taking at home. “The opportunity to identify and resolve medication discrepancies by a nurse in collaboration with pharmacy input is a unique and very desirable approach to ensuring that vulnerable patients receive optimal and safe medication,” said Dr. Setter.
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