Factors Influencing Health Care Professionals' Perceptions of Frequent Drug–Drug Interaction Alerts

Background Drug–drug interactions (DDIs) remain a highly prevalent issue for patients in both community and hospital settings. Electronic medication management systems have implemented DDI alerts to mitigate DDI-related harm from occurring. Objectives The primary aim of this study was to explore factors that influence health care professionals' (hospital doctors, hospital pharmacists, general practitioners, and community pharmacists) perceptions and action taken by them in response to DDI alerts. Methods A qualitative study was conducted using semi-structured interviews between early January and late February 2021. The top 20 most frequently triggered DDI alerts previously identified were used as examples of alert prompts shown to participants. Results A total of 20 participants were recruited. General practitioners (n = 4) were most likely to consider DDI alerts to be clinically relevant and important, and hospital doctors (n = 4) were most likely to consider these alerts not being clinically relevant nor important. Three main factors were identified to influence health care professionals' perceptions of DDI alerts, which included clinical relevance, visual presentation, and content of alerts. Conclusion Health care professionals' perceptions of DDI alerts are influenced by multiple factors and considerations are required to create tailored alerts for users and their clinical contexts. Improvement in DDI alerts should be a priority to improve patient medication safety and health outcomes.