ArticleBMJ open2013
Educational interventions to improve prescribing competency: a systematic review.
Article in BMJ open, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 70 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
70 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Deterministic and stochastic interventions in reducing drug-drug interactions in inappropriate prescribing: A systematic review.PloS one · 2026Pooled it
- Medication errors in community pharmacies: a systematic review of the international literature.PloS one · 2025Pooled it
- Variation of adverse drug events in different settings in Africa: a systematic review.European journal of medical research · 2024Pooled it
- Do educational interventions improve prescribing skills of medical students compared to no additional learning? A systematic review.Medical education online · 2023Pooled it
- Prevalence of adverse drug reactions in the primary care setting: A systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2021Pooled it
- The effect of prescriber education on medication-related patient harm in the hospital: a systematic review.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2017Pooled it
- Electronic charts do not facilitate the recognition of patient hazards by advanced medical students: A randomized controlled study.PloS one · 2020Trial
- The impact of a prescription review and prescriber feedback system on prescribing practices in primary care clinics: a cluster randomised trial.BMC family practice · 2018Trial
- What should be updated in the WHO guide to good prescribing?European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2026Article
- Global under- and overprescribing of drugs-a scoping review.Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology · 2026Review
- Prescription duration of benzodiazepines: a retrospective cohort study of prescription duration in primary care.European journal of clinical pharmacology · 2026Article
- Evaluating the Educational Value of Artificial Intelligence in Pharmacotherapy Education.Pharmacology research & perspectives · 2026Article
- Teaching Prescribing in the PharmD Curriculum: A Qualitative Analysis.Clinics and practice · 2025Article
- Examining clinical pharmacist interventions and identifying opioid medication-related issues in patients with cancer.Journal of oncology pharmacy practice : official publication of the International Society of Oncology Pharmacy Practitioners · 2025Observational
- Evaluating pharmacist prescribing education programmes: a realist synthesis protocol.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Antifungal Agents' Trends of Utilization, Spending, and Prices in the US Medicaid Programs: 2009-2023.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Oral Antibacterial Drug Prescribing in Primary Care Out-of-Hours Services: A Scoping Review.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Disposal Practices of Leftover Medicines Among University of Rwanda Undergraduate Students.Integrated pharmacy research & practice · 2025Article
- Teaching therapy decision-making to medical students: a prospective mixed-methods evaluation of a curricular innovation.BMC medical education · 2024Article
- Article
10 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo review the literature on educational interventions to improve prescribing and identify educational methods that improve prescribing competency in both medical and non-medical prescribers.
designA systematic review was conducted. The databases Medline, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (IPA), EMBASE and CINAHL were searched for articles in English published between January 1990 and July 2013.
settingPrimary and secondary care.
participantsMedical and non-medical prescribers.
interventionEducation-based interventions to aid improvement in prescribing competency. PRIMARY OUTCOME: Improvements in prescribing competency (knows how) or performance (shows how) as defined by Miller's competency model. This was primarily demonstrated through prescribing examinations, changes in prescribing habits or adherence to guidelines.
resultsA total of 47 studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the systematic review. Studies were categorised by their method of assessment, with 20 studies assessing prescribing competence and 27 assessing prescribing performance. A wide variety of educational interventions were employed, with different outcome measures and methods of assessments. In particular, six studies demonstrated that specific prescribing training using the WHO Guide to Good Prescribing increased prescribing competency in a wide variety of settings. Continuing medical education in the form of academic detailing and personalised prescriber feedback also yielded positive results. Only four studies evaluated educational interventions targeted at non-medical prescribers, highlighting that further research is needed in this area.
conclusionsA broad range of educational interventions have been conducted to improve prescribing competency. The WHO Guide to Good Prescribing has the largest body of evidence to support its use and is a promising model for the design of targeted prescribing courses. There is a need for further development and evaluation of educational methods for non-medical prescribers.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.