Outcome of a patient-specific overruling algorithm to reduce drug-drug-interaction alerts

Drug-drug interactions are frequent and over-alerting in clinical decision support systems is a major area of concern. Efforts to achieve a better fit between decision support and the clinical workflow are being undertaken. One possibility is to reduce DDI alerts by taking into account clinical information available in an electronic patient record, e.g. laboratory values. The present article describes the method and outcome of a patient-specific overruling algorithm using serum potassium levels to decide if DDI alerts should be overruled in circumstances where two drugs induce interactions that could lead to hyperkalaemia.