Does a Dose Calculator as an Add-On to a Web-Based Paediatric Formulary Reduce Calculation Errors in Paediatric Dosing? A Non-Randomized Controlled Study

OBJECTIVES: The structured digital dosing guidelines of the web-based Dutch Paediatric Formulary provided the opportunity to develop an integrated paediatric dose calculator. In a simulated setting, we tested the ability of this calculator to reduce calculation errors. METHODS: Volunteer healthcare professionals were allocated to one of two groups, manual calculation versus the use of the dose calculator. Professionals in both groups were given access to a web-based questionnaire with 14 patient cases for which doses had to be calculated. The effect of group allocation on the probability of making a calculation error was determined using generalized estimated equations (GEE) logistic regression analysis. The causes of all the erroneous calculations were evaluated. RESULTS: Seventy-seven healthcare professionals completed the web-based questionnaire: thirty-seven were allocated to the manual group and 40 to the calculator group. Use of the dose calculator resulted in an estimated mean probability of a calculation error of 24.4% (95% CI 16.3–34.8) versus 39.0% (95% CI 32.4–46.1) with use of manual calculation. The mean difference of probability of calculation error between groups was 14.6% (95% CI 3.1–26.2; p = 0.013). In a secondary analysis where calculation error was defined as a 10% or greater deviation from the correct answer, the corresponding figures were 19.5% (95% CI 13–28.2) versus 26.5% (95% CI 21.6–32.1) with a mean difference of 7% between groups (95% CI 2.2–16.3; p = 0.137). Juxtaposition, typo/transcription errors and non-specified errors were more frequent as cause of error in the calculator group; exceeding the maximum dose and wrong correction for age were more frequent in the manual group. The percentage of tenfold errors was 3.1% in the manual group and 3.7% in the calculator group. CONCLUSIONS: Our study shows that the use of a dose calculator as an add-on to a web-based paediatric formulary can reduce calculation errors. Furthermore, it shows that technologies may introduce new errors through transcription errors and wrongly selecting parameters from drop-down lists. Therefore, dosing calculators should be developed and used with special attention for selection and transcription errors.