Issues of decision support in institutional pharmacy systems.

This article discusses the challenges of implementation and maintenance of a decision support system operating within an institutional pharmacy information system. The basic principles of database building and configuration are reviewed. Issues with the common alert systems, allergy, drug interactions, drug-food, and duplicate are discussed. The challenges within dose-ranging programs are also described. Pharmacists are encouraged to develop population-based decision support systems and systems which add value at the individual patient level.