Clarification of drug-checking strategies for expert pharmacists based on gaze analysis

Abstract

In Japan, a pharmacist who receives a physician’s prescription for a drug (1) checks the medical and pharmacological validity of the prescription; (2) prepares the drug; and (3) confirms that the drug has been prepared as prescribed, and that there are no quality issues. The aforementioned checkpoints (1) and (3) are particularly important for ensuring patient safety. Meanwhile, knowledge of checking is tacit and not shared among pharmacists. Therefore, a pharmacist’s gaze was analyzed to identify checking strategies based on expert gaze patterns. Gazing points in prescriptions during expert checks were measured in a clinical setting. Four participants had 20–30 years of experience as pharmacists. Consequently, four check strategies were identified. However, the check strategy differed, depending on the participant. This indicates that each pharmacist in charge of checking prescriptions has a different strategy, and that there are errors that are difficult to detect. In the future, it is necessary to verify the validity of these strategies in terms of safety, and to develop methods to educate novices in a well-balanced manner in each of these strategies.

Keywords: Gaze Analysis, Pharmacist, Tacit Knowledge, Checking Strategies, Patient Safety

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1004844