AUTHOR=de Araújo Bruna Carolina , de Melo Roberta Crevelário , de Bortoli Maritsa Carla , Bonfim José Ruben de Alcântara , Toma Tereza Setsuko TITLE=How to Prevent or Reduce Prescribing Errors: An Evidence Brief for Policy JOURNAL=Frontiers in Pharmacology VOLUME=10 YEAR=2019 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pharmacology/articles/10.3389/fphar.2019.00439 DOI=10.3389/fphar.2019.00439 ISSN=1663-9812 ABSTRACT=

- Preventing prescribing errors is critical to improving patient safety.

- We developed an evidence brief for policy to identify effective interventions to avoid or reduce prescribing errors.

- Four options were raised: promoting educational actions on prudent prescribing directed to prescribers; incorporating computerized alert systems into clinical practice; implementing the use of tools for guiding medication prescribing; and, encouraging patient care by a multidisciplinary team, with the participation of a pharmacist.

- These options can be incorporated into health systems either alone or together, and for that, it is necessary that the context be considered.

- Aiming to inform decision makers, we included considerations on the implementation of these options regarding upper-middle income countries, like the Brazilian, and we also present considerations regarding equity.