Abstract
Objective: To examine the drug use (prescribing) pattern of serious drug-drug interactions (DDIs, contraindicated drug interactions) using real world data. Prescription patterns were examined in terms of dispensing types. Method: Retrospective drug utilization review (DUR) study was performed. One hundred and six datasets of serious DDIs (DDI pairs) were determined among DDI datasets that Ministry of Health & Welfare announced for the DUR system from 2004 to 2005. Electronically transacted ambulatory patients' prescription database to Health Insurance Assessment and Review Services (HIRA) from July, 2005 to June, 2006 was collected with personal information deidentified and analyzed in terms of types of dispensing as a contributing factor. Results: After prescription data analysis per each patient, total number of DDI cases using 95 DDI pairs was 5,511, which accounted for 2.6 cases per patients. DDI cases between two drugs from each of community pharmacy dispensing- type prescription were considerable (63% vs. 24% in those from each of in-institutional dispensing-type prescription and vs. 13% in those from a community pharmacy dispensing-type prescription and an in-institutional dispensingtype prescription). Conclusions: DDI cases from different prescribers were found to be significant. Thus, the concurrent DUR process between prescriptions from different physicians and institutions should be implemented for the safe drug use.