Abstract
In recent years,the role of the pharmacist in ensuring the safety of medical treatment,cancer chemotherapy in particular,has become much clearer.Pharmacists now contribute to safety management in cancer chemotherapy by checking for medication errors systematically.However,in this regard,few studies have been conducted on hospital computer systems for ordering and checking cancer chemotherapy agents for inpatients and outpatients or electronic chemotherapy protocol management systems that that are directly connected to the order entry system.
At Osaka University Hospital,the management of chemotherapy protocols by pharmacists has been steadily expanding since June 2003,and they are now helping greatly to reduce the risks of treating cancer by chemotherapy.In order to further improve the efficiency and safety of chemotherapy,we have been conducting various studies at our hospital since July 2005.In one of them,an electronic chemotherapy protocol management system for both hospital inpatients and outpatients was developed and it started operating in July 2007.The introduction of the new system has enabled us to solve problems concerning dates of administering chemotherapy agents,dosage restrictions,and optimum distribution of treatment agents when several chemotherapy agents are to be administered.It has greatly improved the safety of chemotherapy in our hospital.
