VIDEO: Strategies can help maintain drug allergy de-label

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Utilizing technology and patient education are strategies that can maintain a drug allergy de-label, Allison C. Ramsey, MD, FACAAI, said at the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Annual Scientific Meeting.

“When we have verified that a patient is in fact not allergic to a drug, we can remove that from their list of allergies so that it may be used for any condition it is indicated for. This frequently comes up with antibiotics, most notably penicillin,” Ramsey, an allergist and clinical immunologist at Rochester Regional Health and clinical assistant professor at University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, who also serves as a Healio Allergy/Asthma Peer Perspective Board Member, told Healio. “A lot of times, even though patients have been evaluated by an allergist, their drug allergy can reappear in their chart by people trying to do the right thing for the patient by readding the drug allergy label by mistake.”

Some strategies to avoid this include using the electronic health record to make an alert when someone tries to add the label back or, if a patient is receiving a drug consistently, it could be automatically removed from a patient’s drug allergy field in the EHR, Ramsey said. Other technology, such as natural language processing, could potentially be used to analyze physician-written notes about a patient to determine whether they’ve been deemed not allergic to a drug.

Patient education also is key, Ramsey said, mentioning that there are several apps that can help them keep track of this information, in addition to supplying them with a wallet card.