Medco partners for Rx safety system in Sweden

US pharmacy benefits manager Medco Health Solutions has announced a collaboration with Sweden's government-operated retail pharmacy authority, Apoteket, to develop and test the first automated electronic prescription-review system to improve clinical and financial outcomes for Swedish patients and the country's health care system.

Under the agreement, Medco and Apoteket will jointly develop an advanced, customized system to perform safety-checks on each prescription prior to dispensing - warning pharmacists of drug interactions, excessive dosing or any other issue related to dispensing a prescription. Such drug utilization review systems are commonplace today in the USA, but do not exist in many other countries.

Adverse drug events are a considerable and urgent problem. In Sweden it is estimated that 30% of the emergency care visits and 10% of all hospital admissions are the result of prescription drug-related issues.