Peer-reviewed study reveals dispensing safety of a digital weight-loss service in Australia

Dispensing error rates revealed

Our investigators recently published the world's first study on pharmacy dispensing error rates in a modern digital chronic care service. The study analysed all Australian weight-loss orders filled by Eucalyptus over a 6-month period in 2023 and found a dispensing error rate of 0.35%.

Of the 99 reported errors (from 28,125 orders), most were related to incorrect doses (58.6%) and unreasonable medication expiry windows (21.2%).

This study concluded that a dispensing error rate of 0.35% is significantly lower than the worldwide dispensing error rate of 1.6%.

An analysis of 28,165 GLP-1 RA orders detected a dispensing error rate of just 0.35%.

Safety claims

How safe is GLP-1 dispensation within a digital weight loss service?

Out of the total number of detected errors, incorrect dose (58) and unreasonable medication expiry window (21) were the two most common error types.

84.9% of errors were considered medium urgency (potentially resulting in minor harm), with 11.1% of errors classified as high-urgency errors, which could potentially cause major harm.

Analysis of the study participants showed that female patients reported slightly higher error rates (0.41%) compared to male patients (0.12%). Younger patients aged 18–29 years (0.6%) and 30–39 years (0.5%) reported more errors than older patients. However, error rates did not significantly vary by BMI or ethnicity.

Study comparisons

The only prior investigation of dispensing error rates in a telehealth setting used data from a 2005 review of telepharmacy sites in North Dakota.

The best available benchmark for dispensing error safety comes from a 2024 meta-analysis, which pooled data from 62 studies across community, hospital, and other pharmacy settings. The study concluded that the worldwide dispensing error rate was 1.6%.

The finding that the Eucalyptus dispensing error rate was significantly lower than this average should dispel some concerns about the potential misuse of these services.

This study’s findings indicate that app-based, semaglutide-supported digital weight loss services can dispense medications safely, with a very low error rate compared to traditional healthcare settings.

Significance of this research

Eucalyptus is the first Australian digital health service to publish peer-reviewed data on dispensing errors.

The safety of GLP-1 RA dispensation within digital weight loss services is becoming increasingly important, with large numbers of people accessing these medications through a broad spectrum of online providers. However, prior to this study, there was no evidence in the literature to benchmark dispensing error rates in digital care settings, let alone digital obesity services.

This research demonstrates our commitment to improving the quality and safety of digital care by generating important insights into the application of telehealth.