Online pop-up messages can alter physician prescribing, Pediatrics study says

Electronically delivering evidence-based data to physicians at the point of care can significantly influence prescribing behavior.

By Tyler Chin, AMNews staff. March 12, 2001.

Researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle have found that delivering online pop-up messages to physicians at the point of care can significantly influence physicians' prescribing behavior for common conditions.

An article in the February issue of Pediatrics reports on an eight-month randomized controlled trial to determine whether the onscreen messages would affect the duration of therapy and frequency of prescriptions written for pediatric ear infections.

The study found that the messages reduced the likelihood of excessive dosing of antibiotics for otitis media by 34%, said Dimitri A. Christakis, MD, MPH, the lead author of the study and a pediatrician at the University of Washington. "This relatively inexpensive high-tech method improved physician behavior dramatically and much more than conventional means have shown to do," Dr. Christakis said. Conventional methods include disseminating clinical guidelines and dispatching physicians to visit peers to influence prescribing.

This suggests that a point-of-care information system can change prescribing practices for common conditions so they are more consistent with current evidence-based recommendations. "It's been shown over and over that doctors fail to apply the latest evidence," Dr. Christakis said. "Whether it's because they don't read medical journals, don't remember what they read or can't remember to apply the best evidence is unclear."

The finding also says a point-of-care system can help doctors keep current, which is hard because of the huge amount of data in thousands of journals. "The implication is that using a system such as [we did] provides an easy way for physicians to remain up to date with the best evidence for prescription decisions," he said. [...]