Decision Support

Communicare provides prescribing decision support based on clinical items with a valid ICPC-2 PLUS code and uses pharmaceutical content sourced from the MIMS drug database.

Communicare includes the following interaction checks based on the MIMS drug database:
  • Drug interactions
  • Pregnancy interactions
  • Condition interactions
  • Warnings where duplicate active medications are prescribed with the same generic components (excludes duplicate drug therapy warnings); or where a patient has an adverse reaction recorded to a drug brand, drug class or generic drug that has since become out-of-date.
Note: Interaction warnings are displayed regardless of the user's program rights, viewing rights or system rights.
Important: This is a decision support tool only and is not a substitute for good clinical decisions or practise. You should always verify and confirm the accuracy of any life-threatening information and critically important results.
If you open an historical prescription:
  • Drug to drug interactions current at the time of prescribing are displayed
  • Condition and pregnancy interactions from the current version of MIMS are displayed
Table 1. Decision support
Support type Description MIMS database used Communicare version
Drug Checks for interactions between the active ingredients in medications and adverse reactions to drugs. DrugAlert
  • V19.1 and later
Pregnancy
  • Drug to pregnancy interactions - checks an individual new medication for any pregnancy interactions.
  • Pregnancy to drug interactions - when you add a new pregnancy, checks the patient's active medications for interactions with a pregnancy.
 HealthAlert
  • V20.1 and later
  • V20.2 and later
Condition
  • Drug to condition interactions - checks for any interactions against a patient's conditions when you add a new medication.
  • Condition to drug interactions - checks for any interactions between that condition and the patient's active medication list when you add a condition.
 HealthAlert
  • V20.2 and later

CDS service

In Communicare V21.1 and later, for pregnancy and condition interaction checking, Communicare can be configured to link to the current MIMS database online using the CDS service instead of using the embedded MIMS database that you have downloaded and installed locally.

When the CDS service is enabled:
  • If the CDS service is not available when you are prescribing, a warning is displayed in the Medication Warnings window.
  • If a patient has existing medications, an availability warning is displayed when you add a pregnancy or condition clinical item to their clinical record in the following circumstances:
    Example CDS service warning stating "Condition interaction support is not available"
    • If you are working offline, do not have a connection to the internet or the CDS service is not available
    • In V21.2 and later, the condition item does not have a full ICPC-2 PLUS code
  • In V21.2 and later, a warning is not displayed for procedure or history items if the CDS service is not available, unless the items have a full ICPC-2 PLUS code.

If you require the CDS service, raise a ticket with Communicare Support.

Note: If the CDS service is enabled for your site, ensure that you continue to download and update your MIMS databases monthly. Drug to drug interaction checking, product and consumer information and other warnings all use the MIMS databases installed locally.