Keywords: Interprofessional cooperation, polypharmacy, family medicine, clinical pharmacist
Introduction:
With increasing age, the likelihood of comorbidities and the number of prescribed drugs taken increase. In more than half of older chronically ill people who visit general practitioner (GP) practices, the prescription of potentially inadequate medicine (PIM) deviates from the internationally recognized recommendations. This increases the risk of adverse drug events. The aim of our Study is to evaluate the cooperation of GPs with clinical pharmacists (CPs).
Method:
A prospective longitudinal study with intervention and control groups will be conducted to optimize the quality of drug prescriptions in primary health care units in Upper Austria. To support patient recruitment for the intervention and control groups, cooperation with the Austrian Insurance Company (ÖGK) will be established. Patients who are older than 18 years and have been prescribed seven or more than seven drugs (excluding acute medication) will be included in the study. The control group will be created from the electronic health record (ELGA) patient system for the period of 2022–2024.
The comparability of the patients in both groups will be checked according to the age, gender and medication type of drugs received in order to perform a 1:3 matching. Considered exclusion criteria will be: patients with malignant tumours, dialysis requirement, substitution requirement, alcohol/drug abuse, life expectancy <12 months, guardianship, and language limitations.
Results:
This study aims to demonstrate the potential of interdisciplinarity in the field of medication management and could lead to the establishment of a sustainable network of CPs, GPs and pharmacies in Upper Austria, working together for the benefit of patients.
Conclusions:
Regular medication discussions between CPs and patients in a sustainable community of care between doctors, patients and CPs should lead to a reduction in interactions, side effects, and hospitalization rate in the case of polypharmacy. This could increase adherence to medication and improved quality of life for the patients.
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