# Improving Allergy Documentation and Clinical Decision Support in the EHR

> **NIH AHRQ R01** · BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL · 2021 · $388,680

## Abstract

Abstract
As the 6th leading chronic disease in the U.S., allergies affect 30% of adults and 40% of children. Adverse
drug reactions occur in 1 in 4 outpatients and 1 in 5 inpatients. Many allergies and adverse reactions
warrant documentation in the electronic health record (EHR) allergy section to inform future medical care
and prescribing. It is critical to obtain a complete and accurate allergy history for each patient and to
provide clinicians with an efficient allergy-alerting clinical decision support (CDS) tool. However, the
allergy modules in most existing EHRs have serious limitations in how allergies are documented and drug
allergy alerts are fired. These include: frequently missing documentation of reaction mechanism and type,
lack of a comprehensive terminology subset for encoding diverse reactions, insufficient tools for
reconciling allergy information, and physician alert fatigue resulting from an alert override rate of greater
than 90%. In this study, we will provide solutions to these challenges by addressing the following specific
aims: 1) improve reaction documentation by developing a comprehensive and interactive value set; 2)
develop an innovative allergy reconciliation module within the EHR; 3) redesign drug allergy alerting
mechanisms; and 4) distribute our methods and tools to healthcare institutions and the research
community.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10143184
- **Project number:** 5R01HS025375-04
- **Recipient organization:** BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Li Zhou
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** AHRQ
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $388,680
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-05-07 → 2022-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10143184

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10143184, Improving Allergy Documentation and Clinical Decision Support in the EHR (5R01HS025375-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10143184. Licensed CC0.

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