Information systems in clinical pharmacy applied to parenteral nutrition management and traceability: a systematic review

OBJECTIVE

To review the scientific literature on clinical pharmacy information systems applied to parenteral nutrition (PN) management and traceability.

METHOD

A systematic review of the documents retrieved from the MEDLINE (PubMed), Web of Science, Scopus, Cochrane Library, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (IPA) and Google Scholar databases up to May, 2016. The terms used, as descriptors and free text, were: "Parenteral Nutrition" and "Drug Information Services". The quality of the articles was assessed using the STROBE Questionnaire. The search was completed through consultation with experts and the bibliographic review of the articles selected.

RESULTS

From the 153 references retrieved in our search, after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, only 6 articles were selected for review. In three of them, flowcharts or some kind of graphical notation were designed in order to develop standard management systems, while three were based on computer programs. In two of the articles selected, a comprehensive management system had been designed for PN control and traceability.

CONCLUSIONS

PN must be integrated within a standardized system, to ensure its quality and reduce the risks associated with this therapy. The development of technologies applied to PN would enable to set up management systems that are more complete and easier to apply in a real setting. Therefore, we think it will be necessary to generate new specific articles and developments associated with PN management and traceability, in order to allow their constant monitoring and assessment.