The Seattle evaluation of computerized drug profiles: effects on prescribing practices and resource use.

Since 1979, all outpatient pharmacy transactions at the US Public Health Service Hospital in Seattle have been captured in a computer system which generates a profile of each patient's active and previously used drugs. We conducted a controlled trial in which patients were allocated to profile or no-profile groups while the computer continued to collect data on everyone. In all, 41,572 clinic visits made by 6,186 patients were studied.

The Seattle evaluation of computerized drug profiles: effect on provider activities.

We studied whether furnishing care providers with computer-generated summaries of patients' current and past medications would reduce the time they spent on various drug-related tasks during patient visits. An observer used time-sampling methods to measure the amount of provider time spent on each of 10 activities during 166 clinic visits, some with profiles and some without them. Additional data were taken from the medical record on factors that might affect the time spent on various tasks.