Physicians' and pharmacists' perspective on clarity and clinical relevance of absolute contraindications in "Summaries of Product Characteristics".

Aims: Previous work has identified several limitations in "Summaries of Product Characteristics" (SmPCs), which are associated with risks for patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate pharmacists' and physicians' interpretation of contraindications in SmPCs and reasons for their nonadherence in clinical routine.

Methods: For 20 commonly missed or ignored absolute contraindications, an anonymous online survey providing 24 clinical example cases (one or two per contraindication) for physicians and pharmacists was developed.

Artificial intelligence-powered chatbots in search engines: a cross-sectional study on the quality and risks of drug information for patients.

Background: Search engines often serve as a primary resource for patients to obtain drug information. However, the search engine market is rapidly changing due to the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbots. The consequences for medication safety when patients interact with chatbots remain largely unexplored.

Pseudo-Worsening of Kidney Function Due to Inhibition of Renal Creatinine Secretion: Quality of Information Provided in Prescribing Information/SmPC.

Determination of serum creatinine concentrations and subsequent calculation of estimated glomerular filtration rates (eGFR) is a cornerstone of clinical medicine. Crucial clinical decisions such as drug treatment discontinuations are based on eGFR calculated from serum creatinine measurements. However, creatinine is not only filtered in the kidneys, but also actively secreted into urine.

Inconsistencies of absolute drug-drug contraindication reports: Analysis of Summaries of Product Characteristics of commonly prescribed drugs.

Aims: Prescribing information should follow a defined structure to help prescribers easily find required information. Often information appears in different sections of Summaries of Product Characteristics (SmPCs) in an inconsistent way. Still unknown is how this inconsistency affects absolute contraindications and how it can be improved.

Documentation of Drug-Related Problems with ICD-11: Application of the New WHO Code-Set to Clinical Routine Data.

Drug-related problems (DRPs), i.e., adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and medication errors (MEs), constitute a serious threat to the patient's safety.

Comprehensibility of Contraindications in German, UK and US Summaries of Product Characteristics/Prescribing Information-A Comparative Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis.

Contraindications (CIs) in Summaries of Product Characteristics (SmPCs)/Prescribing Information (PI) that lack clarity may pose a risk to medication safety and increase the risk for adverse drug reactions. We assessed and compared SmPCs/PI from three major drug markets regarding comprehensibility from the prescriber perspective, as well as usability in clinical decision support systems. 158 drugs met the following inclusion criteria: marketed in Germany (DE), United Kingdom (UK) and United States (US) and belonged to the 100 most recently FDA approved and/or 100 most frequently prescribed drugs in either country.

Use of medication data alone to identify diagnoses and related contraindications: Application of algorithms to close a common documentation gap.

Aims: Automated checks for medication-related problems have become a cornerstone of medication safety. In many clinical settings medication checks remain confined to drug-drug interactions because only medication data are available in an adequately coded form, leaving possible contraindicated drug-disease combinations unaccounted for. Therefore, we devised algorithms that identify frequently contraindicated diagnoses based on medication patterns related to these diagnoses.

The CredibleMeds list: Usage of QT interval prolonging drugs in Germany and discordances with prescribing information.

Aims: A substantial number of Summaries of Product Characteristics (SmPCs)/Prescribing Information (PI) have warnings or contraindications on QT interval prolongation. The goal of this work was to quantify usage of QT interval prolonging drugs according to the CredibleMeds database of the German outpatient drug prescription market and to evaluate discrepancies between German SmPCs/US PI and CredibleMeds .

Methods: Drugs listed on CredibleMeds with known, possible or conditional risk for torsade de pointes were evaluated from 2000 to 2020.