Development, Implementation, and Preliminary Evaluation of the Monitoring and Intervention of Therapeutic Actions System (MINERVA) - Executive Summary

摘要

Monitoring and intervention of therapeutic actions (MINERVA) is a rule-oriented, computer-based system designed to monitor drug therapy, detect instances of inappropriate or suboptimal therapy, and generate medical advisories when such instances are found. The system utilizes a series of rules that incorporate the medical and pharmacological knowledge of experts, and that employ patient-related data obtained on-line from the hospital pharmacy and clinical laboratories, to assist in medical decision-making. Also included in the MINERVA system is a module that provides advisories when a newly prescribed medication is pharmacologically and/or chemically related to one that has produced a prior adverse reaction (PAR) in that patient. The report of the MINERVA project staff describes the development, implementation, and preliminary evaluation of the MINERVA system and its PAR component. The results of this project, and of its predecessor MEDIPHOR system project, show the general utility of computer-based systems for monitoring drug therapy and influencing physician behavior. The results support the view that further work using the general approach employed for the MEDIPHOR and MINERVA systems is likely to yield more effective methods of improving the quality of therapy.