Preventing Medication Dispensing Errors in Pharmacy Practice With Interpretable Machine Intelligence

NCT ID: NCT06245044

Last Updated: 2025-11-26

Study Results

Results available

Outcome measurements, participant flow, baseline characteristics, and adverse events have been published for this study.

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Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

68 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2024-04-11

Study Completion Date

2024-12-04

Brief Summary

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Pharmacists currently perform an independent double-check to identify drug-selection errors before they can reach the patient. However, the use of machine intelligence (MI) to support this cognitive decision-making work by pharmacists does not exist in practice. This research is being conducted to examine the effectiveness of the timing of machine intelligence (MI) advice on to determine if it results in lower task time, increased accuracy, and increased trust in the MI.

Detailed Description

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Pharmacists currently perform an independent double-check currently to identify drug-selection errors before they can reach the patient. However, the use of machine intelligence (MI) to support this cognitive decision-making work by pharmacists does not exist in practice. Instead, pharmacists rely solely on reference images of the medication which they can compare to the prescription vial contents. Previous research has shown that decision support systems can effectively improve healthcare delivery efficiency and accuracy, while preventing adverse drug events. However, little is known about how MI technologies impact pharmacists' work performance and cognitive demand.

To facilitate the long-term symbiotic relationship between the pharmacists and the MI system, proper trust needs to be established. While trust has been identified as the central factor for effective human-machine teaming, issues arise when humans place unjustified trust in automated technologies do not place enough trust in them. Over trust in automation can lead to complacency and automation bias. For instance, the pharmacists may rely on the MI system to the extent that they blindly accept any recommendation by the system. Under trust can result in pharmacist disuse and potential abandonment of the MI system.

Furthermore, little is known about the timing of the MI advice on pharmacists' work performance. For example, showing the MI's advice while the pharmacist is performing the medication verification task may yield different results than showing the MI's advice after the pharmacist made their decision.

The study investigators have developed a MI system for medication images classification. The objective of this study is to examine the effectiveness of the timing of MI advice to determine if it results in lower task time, increased accuracy, and increased trust in the MI.

Conditions

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Machine Intelligence in the Pharmacy

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

CROSSOVER

Primary Study Purpose

OTHER

Blinding Strategy

NONE

Study Groups

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No MI Help

No MI help will be presented during the verification tasks

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

No MI Help

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Participants will complete the medication verification task without any MI help

Scenario #1

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Participants will receive MI in the form of a pop-up message if their decision differs from the MI's determination.

Scenario #2

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

MI help will be displayed concurrently with the filled and reference images.

Scenario #1

MI help will be presented in the form of a pop-up message the participant's decision differs from the MI's determination.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

No MI Help

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Participants will complete the medication verification task without any MI help

Scenario #1

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Participants will receive MI in the form of a pop-up message if their decision differs from the MI's determination.

Scenario #2

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

MI help will be displayed concurrently with the filled and reference images.

Scenario #2

MI help will be displayed concurrently with the filled and reference images.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

No MI Help

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Participants will complete the medication verification task without any MI help

Scenario #1

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Participants will receive MI in the form of a pop-up message if their decision differs from the MI's determination.

Scenario #2

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

MI help will be displayed concurrently with the filled and reference images.

Interventions

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No MI Help

Participants will complete the medication verification task without any MI help

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Scenario #1

Participants will receive MI in the form of a pop-up message if their decision differs from the MI's determination.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Scenario #2

MI help will be displayed concurrently with the filled and reference images.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Licensed pharmacist in the United States
* Age 18 years and older at screening
* PC/Laptop with Microsoft Windows 10 or Mac (Macbook, iMac) with MacOS with Google Chrome, Edge, Opera, Safari, or Firefox web browser installed on the device
* Screen resolution of 1024x968 pixels or more
* A laptop integrated webcam or USB webcam is also required for the eye tracking purpose.

Exclusion Criteria

* Participated in Wave 1 or Wave 2
* Eyeglasses
* Uncorrected cataracts, intraocular implants, glaucoma, or permanently dilated pupil
* Require a screen reader/magnifier or other assistive technology to use the computer
* Eye movement or alignment abnormalities (lazy eye, strabismus, nystagmus)
Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sponsors

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University of Michigan

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

National Library of Medicine (NLM)

NIH

Sponsor Role collaborator

Responsible Party

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Corey Lester

Assistant Professor of Clinical Pharmacy

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

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Corey A Lester, PharmD, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Michigan

Locations

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University of Michigan

Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States

Site Status

Countries

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United States

Provided Documents

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Document Type: Study Protocol and Statistical Analysis Plan

View Document

Other Identifiers

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5R01LM013624

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: secondary_id

View Link

HUM00241223

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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