Science to Practice
Latest highlights on drug safety and efficacy

9.9.2025

Older adults face high risks of medication errors and adverse drug events due to polypharmacy and age-related changes. A new systematic review examined 16 randomised controlled trials with over 135,000 participants.

Clinical decision support systems (CDSS) reduced the initiation of potentially inappropriate medications by up to 18% (1). CDSS interventions increased deprescribing rates, with 55% of older patients discontinuing inappropriate drugs, compared to 30% in control groups (2).

CDSS enables safer prescribing for older adults by reducing inappropriate drugs and supporting deprescribing. Success depends on clinician engagement, smart alerts, and workflow integration.

What it means for clinical practice: CDSS can support safer prescribing, but success depends on clinician engagement, system usability, and reducing low-importance alerts to avoid alert fatigue. Collaboration with pharmacists and integration into clinical workflows are key to achieving meaningful outcomes.

Takeaway: CDSS are promising tools to optimise prescribing for older adults, provided that their contents are evidence-based and cover all relevant areas of drug treatment. In addition to technology, human factors, training, and system design determine whether safety gains translate into real-world impact.

Discover Medbase Knowledgebase, our trusted, comprehensive source of drug safety and efficacy information across all clinically relevant areas of pharmacotherapy.

News produced by Medbase Medical Team

References

1. Ng Y, Hsu JTY, Ng NNE, Ong JZE, Hsu JLJ, Sulaimi F, Tan HK, Tang ASP, Ng QX. Evaluating the role of clinical decision support systems in medication safety for older people: a systematic review. Age Ageing. 2025 Jul 1;54(7):afaf206. doi: 10.1093/ageing/afaf206. PMID: 40716041; PMCID: PMC12296344.
2. McDonald EG, Wu PE, Rashidi B et al. The MedSafer study—Electronic decision support for deprescribing in hospitalized older adults: A cluster randomized clinical trial. JAMA Intern Med. 2022;182:265–73. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2021.7429.