BACKGROUND: Although, in Korea, adverse event would be a serious healthcare problem like many western countries, patient safety is not a major concern among medical informaticist, clinicians, and policy makers. We need to understand the utility of the computerized adverse events surveillance system(AESS) which is the most cost-effective method to detect and prevent patient injury.

OBJECTIVE: To review methodologies of detecting adverse events using information technology, adverse drug event surveillance system, critical laboratory alerting system, and adverse medical device event surveillance system.

METHODS: Recent studies on adverse event surveillance using information technology were reviewed.

RESULTS: For each system, the author reviewed essential concepts, signals and rules, software system architectures, review processes, and effect of system implementations related to AESS.

CONCLUSION: If the utility of AESS is proved and professional consensus is formulated among medical informaticist, computerized detection of adverse events could be practical on a widespread basis in Korea.