A new study released by the Regenstrief Institute and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reports on doctor's interactions with medical alerts, a process encompassed within electronic medical records.

According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, this study focused on a phenomenon known as alert fatigue, in which doctors may unintentionally ignore an alert after receiving a numerous amount. Researchers attempted to determine the positives and negatives of medical alerts.

Medication alerts provide imperative information on drug-related information. These include warnings on possible side effects, duplicate prescriptions, patient allergies and drug interactions. The alerts are connected to a new drug prescription or a change in a patient's laboratory tests.

The researchers followed 30 doctors, nurses and pharmacists as they treated 146 patients and received a total of 320 medical alerts. Many providers did not understand why a warning appeared and doctors specifically believed that the alert system was more geared for pharmacists and nurse practitioners.

The study also found that if computerized medical records provide too many medical alerts, healthcare professionals experience alert fatigue and may disregard important medical information. For example, an alert may warn a doctor about a drug that the patient has already been taking without having any issues. This leads doctors to ignore some medical alerts that could prove to be vital for patient safety. Technology experts will look to improving the medical alert process.

"Too many alerts and overly detailed alerts are a common source of frustration across electronic medical record systems," Dr. Alissa Russ, a researcher of Regenstrief Institute, said. "Unless we improve medication alerts so they contain information that users need to make decisions, the problem of alert fatigue will grow as EMR systems expand beyond single hospitals and share more data."

Chiropractors may also experience this problem, particularly when serving patients with musculoskeletal disorders whose condition may require alerts for osteoporosis or a joint replacement. As a result, chiropractic management software that allows these alerts to be tailored to the environment of the specific practice – and not just to medication alerts – may become a necessity in any chiropractor's medical office.