Friday, July 29, 2011

Errors Associated with Outpatient Computerized Prescribing Systems

American Medical News has an story about something that should be self-evident to those of us who work with technology:   Involving a computer in the process doesn't prevent humans from making errors.


The study, Errors Associated with Outpatient Computerized Prescribing Systems, found that of 3850 computer-generated prescriptions received by a commercial outpatient pharmacy chain across three states

"About one in 10 computer-generated prescriptions included at least one error, of which a third had potential for harm."


This might be a good reading assignment for students who put a little too much faith in the ability of machines to catch their mistakes. 

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