Teoh Leanne, Biezen Ruby, Taylor Marietta, Sinnott Richard O, McCullough Michael J
Melbourne Dental School, University of Melbourne, 720 Swanston Street, Carlton, VIC, Australia.
Department of General Practice and Primary Care, University of Melbourne, Medical Building, Grattan Street, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
BMC Oral Health. 2025 May 22;25(1):766. doi: 10.1186/s12903-025-06137-5.
While drugs have a limited role in the management of dental presentations, Australian dentists have high rates of inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics. There is also a lack of relevant drug resources for dentists in Australia. Our team developed Drugs4dent, a medicines decision support tool, that provides dentists with relevant drug knowledge, assists with appropriate prescribing and provides safety checks to reduce prescribing errors. The aim of this pilot study was to improve Drugs4dent with focus groups of dentists, and assess the acceptability, usability, and user experience, of Drugs4dent.
Focus groups of ten dentists were established to inform the improvement of Drugs4dent. Acceptability and usability testing of Drugs4dent was then undertaken with a further ten dentists using interviews and a survey. The survey was based on the Framework for Acceptability and System Usability Scale. Inductive thematic analysis was undertaken using Nvivo for the focus groups and interviews, and descriptive statistics for analysis of survey results.
Dentists from the focus group and interviews found the content of Drugs4dent acceptable and useful for dentistry, recognising that similar drug information is currently not available. The majority agreed that Drugs4dent would improve their ability to prescribe according to guidance. Participants reported Drugs4dent was intuitive, and information was easy to locate. Most dentists preferred Drugs4dent integrated with their dental practice software. In the absence of this functionality, they preferred Drugs4dent as a standalone resource, without needing to input patient data. Drugs4dent was subsequently commercialised with MIMS Australia, to create the decision support tool: MIMS Drugs4dent.
Drugs4dent is the first dental medicines decision tool in Australia. The high acceptability and usability of the tool, and subsequent commercialisation indicates that MIMS Drugs4dent has substantial promise for the future, and can transform access to relevant drug information for Australian dentists.
虽然药物在牙科治疗中的作用有限，但澳大利亚牙医抗生素处方不当的比例很高。澳大利亚的牙医也缺乏相关的药物资源。我们的团队开发了Drugs4dent，这是一种药物决策支持工具，可为牙医提供相关的药物知识，协助进行合理处方，并提供安全检查以减少处方错误。这项试点研究的目的是通过牙医焦点小组来改进Drugs4dent，并评估Drugs4dent的可接受性、可用性和用户体验。
成立了由十名牙医组成的焦点小组，以指导Drugs4dent的改进。随后，又有十名牙医通过访谈和调查对Drugs4dent进行了可接受性和可用性测试。该调查基于可接受性框架和系统可用性量表。使用Nvivo对焦点小组和访谈进行归纳主题分析，并使用描述性统计分析调查结果。
焦点小组和访谈中的牙医发现Drugs4dent的内容对牙科治疗是可接受且有用的，他们认识到目前没有类似的药物信息。大多数人同意Drugs4dent将提高他们遵循指导进行处方的能力。参与者报告说Drugs4dent很直观，信息很容易找到。大多数牙医更喜欢将Drugs4dent与他们的牙科诊疗软件集成。如果没有这个功能，他们更喜欢将Drugs4dent作为一个独立的资源，而无需输入患者数据。Drugs4dent随后与澳大利亚MIMS公司商业化，创建了决策支持工具：MIMS Drugs4dent。
Drugs4dent是澳大利亚首个牙科药物决策工具。该工具的高可接受性和可用性以及随后的商业化表明，MIMS Drugs4dent在未来具有巨大的潜力，并且可以改变澳大利亚牙医获取相关药物信息的方式。
