Clinical Decision Support Systems to Identify Drug-Related Problems in Diabetes Mellitus Patients: A Systematic Review

Clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) have been developed based on individual conditions to provide rational therapy by offering recommendations for therapeutic as well as dosage selection and preventing drug interactions. This study aims to summarize the available evidence on CDSSs intervention, key outputs, and impact of the user in DM patients. The study was conducted using a systematic review which search strategy in Pubmed, and Scopus was used to find relevant records and the initial search was conducted on November 6-7, 2021, reviewing all records in the last 10 years. This study evaluated CDSSs to improve the use of technology in medication for DM patients. The scope of the study included prescription, medication errors, and medication safety. Furthermore, other studies that met the inclusion criteria evaluated CDSSs electronic prescriptions, and computerized physician order entry/CPOE systems in medication prescription, emphasizing the reduction of medication errors, adverse drug events, drug-allergy checking, and dosing support. Total records identified were 855, consisting of 786 articles from Pubmed, 64 from Scopus, and 5 from manually searching the bibliographies of articles that have been found. The result of this study showed the significant roles of CDSSs in improving prescribing, reducing side effects, and drug interactions, as well as increasing patient safety. Despite the significant improvement in practitioners and process performance facilitated by CDSSs, minimal information was found regarding the impact of these systems on outcomes of patients. CDSSs are used in hospitals and primary care settings to identify potential drug interactions, correct therapy regimens, monitor therapy, blood glucose documentation, ensure patients receive medication according to the guideline, provide nutritional advice, and schedule physical activity. The usage of CDSSs improves blood glucose levels, detects possible drug interactions, reduces face-to-face consultations, improves documentation, assists in identifying dose, and promotes prescribing in line with the guideline. The use of CDSSs can help to reduce the risk of errors in management therapy.