The Development of Clinical decision support system for Symptom Analysis and Rational Drug Use Recommendations for Community Pharmacy

Abstract

Optimizing Rational Drug Use (RDU) is essential in community pharmacy practice. To improve RDU prescribing and optimize medication decision-making, this study develops a clinical decision support tool to assist community pharmacists in symptom analysis and medication recommendations following Thailand's RDU policy. The system integrates real-time symptom analysis, symptom-disease matching, and disease-drug treatment recommendations based on Thailand RDU guidelines for community pharmacies in drug store by utilizing a database design and low-code platform. The interface was designed with User Experience (UX) principles to ensure accessibility and ease of use. The system database includes 481 symptoms, 200 disease profiles, and 315 drug lists. Fifteen case studies were conducted to evaluate system performance, yielding a precision score of 1, a recall score of 0.84, and an F1-score of 0.92, demonstrating reliable drug-disease matching. The findings indicate that the system supports pharmacists in symptom assessment, disease identification, and rational drug use recommendations. This study highlights the potential for a patient-centered digital health tool that enhances community pharmacy services, reduces the risk of medication errors, and improves pharmaceutical care quality.