TABLE 1.
Pediatric Requirements for Safe and Effective Electronic Prescribing
| Category | Pediatric Requirements |
|---|---|
| Patient information | Date of birth or age in units more specific than years |
| Weight in kg | |
| Height in cm | |
| Any history of intolerable adverse effects or allergy to medications | |
| Medication information | Indication-based dosing and individual and daily dose alerts, using mg/kg per day or mg/m2 per day formula, unless inappropriate |
| Weight-based dosing calculations | |
| All available formulations, including liquid formulations that may be specific brands | |
| Common formulations requiring extemporaneous compounding or combinations of active ingredients | |
| Cognitive support | Dose range checking (minimum and maximum amount per dose, amount per day based on weight, surface area, and total dose) |
| Automatic strength to volume conversions for liquid medications | |
| Adverse-effect warnings specific to pediatric populations | |
| Alternative therapies based on ameliorable adverse effects | |
| Tall-man lettering to reduce medication selection errors | |
| Medication-specific indications to reduce ordering of sound-alike drugs | |
| Pharmacy information | Pharmacies that will create extemporaneous compounds |
| Data transmission | Use of messaging standards for data transmission to pharmacies that include the patient’s weight and notes pertaining to weight-based calculations |
| Transmission of strength, concentration, and dose volume labeled in metric units for liquid medications |