RxStar is a program created at Vanderbilt whose goal is to significantly limit opportunities for medical error. The program is integrated with the Vanderbilt electronic health record StarPanel, and contains a series of features designed to improve patient safety without compromising system speed or usability.

Besides producing prescriptions that are 100 percent legible, the program automatically checks each new prescription against a patient’s known problems and other medications, looking for contraindications such as drug allergies and over or underdoses. The program will issue an alert if anything appears wrong with a prescription. RxStar supports pediatric dosing with weight-based prescribing guidelines, a built-in calculator, and dose-rounding heuristics to improve the dosing of liquid preparations. Two grants have been obtained based on RxStar to explore ways to further enhance patient safety and mediation adherence.

Links: RxStar project website on the Vanderbilt network (VUNETID required).

Primary Contact: Kevin B. Johnson, MD, MS.