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Aims: To introduce the concepts “quality assurance”, “rational drug prescribing” and “outreach visits” in general practice in Storstrøm County, Denmark and study the effect of unsolicited mailed feedback and outreach visits on drug prescribing. Methods: The first step was to generate standardised charts displaying the county variations of drug volume prescribing within 13 major drug groups at the second ATC-level. The charts were mailed unsolicited to the 94 general practices in the county. Each practice could identify its position within the county prescribing variation. This procedure was repeated every six months from 1992 to 1998. In 1998 annual outreach visit were offered to general practice and 88 of 94 practices accepted. The awareness of prescribing profiles was monitored during the visits in 1998 and 1999. In 2000 a randomised controlled trial allocating practices into two parallel arms was launched. Effects of two desk guides on rational drug prescribing promoted during outreach visits were evaluated. Results: During the period of mailed feedback, there was a large variation in drug prescribing volumes between practices but little within-practice variation over time. No significant change was detected. Practitioners’ assessment of their own prescribing profiles improved significantly through the outreach visits. The prescribing of antibiotics was significantly affected by the desk guide whereas no effect was detected on the prescribing of non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs. Conclusions: Semi-annually mailed feedback over a seven-year period had no significant effect on prescribing volumes or variations in prescribing volumes, but some effect on the practitioners’ awareness of their own prescribing profiles. Outreach visits significantly improved the awareness. A randomised controlled trial using outreach visits combined with a simple desk guide affected the prescribing of some antibacterial drugs as intended whereas the similar intervention had no detectable effect on the prescribing of non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs.

Prescribing of drugs is an integral component of health care. In ideal situations drug prescribing constitute safe, effective, and inexpensive treatment alternatives for many conditions. However, poor and inappropriate prescribing is associated with illness and increased costs that can have an important impact at population level. Therefore, evaluation of the quality of drug prescribing is an important part of the process to improve quality in health care delivery. "Drug Utilisation 90%" (DU90) is an innovative approach to assess drug prescribing. Using this approach the drugs that represent 90% of the drug prescription/sales volume are identified. The rationale behind the development of DU90 rests on an assumption that a low number of products prescribed is associated with more rational prescribing practices. Furthermore, the approach can be used to asses what proportion of the drugs that represent 90% of the volume is made up by drugs recommended by local drug committees. In this essay, a feasibility study of DU90 is presented. Furthermore, the usefulness of DU90 as an indicator for quality assessment is discussed. It is concluded that DU90 does not directly reflect the quality of prescribing but it seems to be an useful tool in the quality assessment process through indicating areas that need to be analysed in more depth. The approach can be used for exploring drug prescribing data in a rapid, effective and inexpensive way / Läkemedelsförskrivningen är en viktig komponent inom sjukvården. Använd på rätt sätt är den en relativt säker, effektiv och mindre kostsam form av behandling jämförd med andra terapeutiska åtgärder. Utvärderingen av kvaliteten på läkemedelsförskrivningen är en viktig insats eftersom dålig läkemedelsförskrivning kan leda till onödig sjuklighet för patienten och ökade kostnader för samhället. Drug Utilisation 90 % (DU90) är en ny metod för utvärderingen av läkemedelsförskrivningen. Med hjälp av denna metod identifieras de läkemedel som utgör 90 % av förskrivnings/försäljningsvolymen. Konceptet har utvecklats baserat på antagandet att användning av få produkter är associerat med en mer rationell läkemedelsförskrivning. Baserad på DU90 kan även följsamheten till listan på rekommenderade läkemedel som utfärdas periodvis av Läkemedelskommittéerna, utvärderas inom 90 % av förskrivnings-/försäljningsvolymen. I denna uppsats presenteras en pilotstudie av användbarheten av DU90. Vidare diskuteras DU90 som indikator för kvalitetsutvärdering. Sammanfattningsvis dras slutsatsen att DU90 inte direkt reflekterar kvaliteten på läkemedelsförskrivningen men verkar vara ett användbart verktyg eftersom det kan ge värdefull indikation på terapiområden som behöver vidare analys. DU90 förefaller vara ett snabbt, effektivt och billigt instrument för utvärdering av förskrivningsdata. / <p>ISBN 91-7997-105-9</p>

Background: Tertiary hospitals have multiple specialist outpatient clinics attended by patients suffering from various comorbid diseases. This results in individuals attending more than one clinic per month, since dedicated clinic days are seldom on the same day. As patients attend discrete clinics, they have separate encounters with various prescribers, increasing the potential for irrational drug use. In addition, multiple clinic visits have a negative socio-economic impact on health care users from poorer communities where financial resources are limited due to transport expenses and days of work missed. The aim of this study was to determine the prescribing pattern of drugs to chronic disease outpatients, and find possible solutions to provide a system that would reduce overprescribing of chronic medication at Steve Biko Academic Hospital (SBAH) in one measure namely drug duplication. Methods: A retrospective descriptive cross-sectional study with the use of convenience sampling was employed to determine the medication prescribing practises to comorbid chronic disease patients attending multiple specialist clinics at SBAH from February 1, 2018-May 31, 2018. Participants were selected according to their appearance in the hospital records, with sample saturation reached when each participant had visited all the different clinics. Chronic disease outpatients attending the SBAH clinics had reviews every three months. The reviews were controlled by issuing patients with medication for a three-month period, where after a follow up visit was mandatory in order to ensure prescription and medication renewal. Therefore, each patient visited all the clinics rendering a service relating to a specific chronic condition within a four-month period that determined the study period chosen. Hospital records of patients attending the most frequently visited clinics as reported by the SBAH Pharmacy and Therapeutics committee (PTC) were evaluated. These clinics included outpatient departments of diabetes, haematology, internal medicine, neurology, oncology and psychiatry. Each drug prescription observed was evaluated using guidelines of World Health Organization (WHO) titled, “How to investigate drug use in health facilities: selected drug use indicators.” Prescribing indicators relevant to this study were used from the WHO guidelines. Results: One hundred and six patients were multiple clinic-attendees during the study period. Of the 106 patients retained, 103 (97.17%) patients attended two clinics and three (2.83%) patients attended three clinics. Regarding the WHO prescribing indicators, the average number of visits to SBAH by the comorbid chronic disease outpatients observed was 3.03 visits during the four-month study period. Prescription analysis included 80 (75.47%) patients out of 106 patients attending multiple clinics at the same time. The average number of drugs prescribed per encounter was 4.97. The results also showed that 45.45% of the 187 prescriptions observed contained five or more drugs. Most frequently prescribed drugs were tramadol 51 (5.49%), followed by simvastatin 48 (5.17%) and enalapril 45 (4.84%). Drug duplication occurred in 68 individual cases in the 80 patients observed. In total, drug duplication affected 39 patients (48.75%) [95% CI = 37.80%: 59.70%]. The most duplicated drug classes were analgesics 18 (26.47%), followed by anti-depressants 14 (20.59%) cases recorded. Conclusion: The results from this study support findings from similar studies at different institutions. The study confirmed multiple clinic visits are prevalent in the medical disciplines, often prescribing drugs from the same class. Clinical implications from these frequent and separate encounters may result in irrational prescribing, adverse drug events, drug-drug interactions and polypharmacy. The establishment of polypharmacy to comorbid chronic disease patients indicates the high risk of drug-drug interactions and adverse drug events. A prospective study would have provided more data for analysis to determine the level of polypharmacy and drug duplication. Thus, supplementation of this study with further studies could provide conclusions on whether the patients suffered from problematic or had appropriate polypharmacy. Physicians treating multiple clinicattendees should be equipped to monitor rationality of prescribing encounters. Installation of an advanced electronic Hospital Information System (HIS) could aid in improving drug prescribing in tertiary hospitals. Use of electronic prescribing tools as shown in previous studies is a requirement to improve tertiary hospitals in developing countries such as SBAH. The incidence of drug duplication at SBAH builds on existing evidence of unnecessary healthcare costs because of medication errors. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Pharmacology / MSc (Pharmacology) / Unrestricted

Introduction: In the past decades, the representation of seniors is increasing and the knowledge and the approaches to geriatrics and gerontology are more and more important. With the increasing age, there is also a grow in number of diseases and drugs (high incidence of polymorbidity and polypharmacotherapy). With regard to physiological, pathological and other changes related to aging, there is a higher risk of complications after drugs. For the rational use of drugs with old people, it is essential to eliminate negative influence and negative impacts of various drugs or non-drugs factors and to ensure the maximum effectiveness, safety and cost-effectiveness of given drugs regimens. Especially using anticholinergic drugs can have negative effect on older people (e.g confusion) while aging, "the cholinergic deficit" is increasing. As the anticholinergic drugs is necessary for seniors, it is required to use drugs with the lowest anticholinergic activity. This diploma thesis evaluates the prevalence of anticholinergic drugs usage. It also elaborates which anticholinergic drugs and combinations of these anticholinergic drugs are most commonly prescribed to geriatric patients in acute, ambulatory and pharmacy healthcare in the Czech Republic. Methodology: The analyzed data were collected from 2018 to...

Introduction: Propotion of older people is rapidly increasing in the world population. Elderly represents a specific, heterogenous population which is because of many reasons more vulnerable to some adverse drug events. Many explicit criteria of potentially inappropriate medication used in the elderly have been developed in order to improve the quality and safety of geriatric pharmacotherapy. These criteria represent basic tools, defining fundamental prescribing rules for the evaluation of appropriate choice and dosing of medications in the old age and for the evaluation of potentially inappropriate prescriptions in older patiens. The aim of the diploma thesis was to compare advantages and disadvantages of explicit criteria published until the end of 2015 year and to summarizea list of allpotentially inappropriate medications in the elderly (regardless of diagnoses and concomitantly used medications), applicable in the epidemiological studies of the EU COST Action 1402project and in subsequent studies. Methods: Using systematic literature search in PubMed dataset, conducted in the period 04/2015 - 12/2015, all explicit and explicit- implicit criteria (published in the foreign peer- reviewed scientific journals bythe end of year 2015 and validated by expert panels) have been identified. Information...

Les sujets résidant dans les établissements d'hébergement pour personnes âgées dépendantes (EHPAD) sont fréquemment exposés à une polypathologie et sont polymédiqués, ce qui augmente le risque de prescriptions potentiellement inappropriées (PPI) et ainsi le risque d'événements iatrogènes tels que le décès et l'hospitalisation. La plupart des études réalisées en France sur la PPI se sont focalisées sur des classes médicamenteuses précises, et peu ont évalué l'impact des caractéristiques structurelles et organisationnelles des EHPAD sur la PPI des résidents, indépendamment des caractéristiques individuelles. Cette thèse a eu pour objectif de développer un nouvel indicateur de PPI, reflétant au mieux la prise en charge médicamenteuse globale des résidents d'EHPAD. Les travaux de thèse ont été réalisés sur un échantillon issu de l'étude IQUARE (Impact d'une démarche QUAlité sur l'évolution des pratiques et le déclin fonctionnel des REsidents), étude quasi expérimentale (NCT01703689) évaluant l'impact d'une intervention basée sur l'éducation gériatrique du personnel de l'EHPAD sur des indicateurs de qualité des soins. Dans un premier temps, nous avons construit un outil original de détection de PPI, combinant des critères explicites et implicites, identifiant 71% des résidents avec une PPI à l'inclusion. Des caractéristiques organisationnelle (accès à un avis psychiatrique) et structurelle (présence d'une unité de soins spécialisée) de l'EHPAD expliquaient une part de cette PPI. Dans un second temps, afin de valider la pertinence de cet outil, nous avons évalué l'impact clinique de la PPI sur la survenue d'événements indésirables au cours du suivi. Nous n'avons pas retrouvé de risque augmenté de décès ou d'hospitalisation. Enfin, l'intervention gériatrique générale de l'étude IQUARE a significativement réduit la PPI des résidents à 18 mois. Ces travaux ont fourni des éléments importants à prendre en considération, lors de la construction de nouvelles études visant à modifier les pratiques de prescription et à réduire le nombre de médicaments prescrits chez les résidents d'EHPAD, mais aussi pour déterminer l'impact clinique de ces changements. / Older people living in nursing homes (NHs) suffer from numerous comorbidities and functional decline. Polymedication is frequent in this population. This increases the risk of potentially inappropriate drug prescribing (PIDP), which can lead to adverse drug events such as falls and hospitalization. Most French studies did not examine PPI with a global perspective, but focused on specific drug classes. Moreover, few studies have investigated, irrespective of the individual characteristics of residents, the structural and organizational characteristics of nursing homes on the quality of drug prescribing. Thesis work aimed to develop a new indicator of PIDP, which best reflects the global medication use of residents. Thesis works have been performed using the data of the IQUARE study (Impact d'une démarche Qualité sur l'évolution des pratiques et le déclin fonctionnel des REsidents), a quasi-experimental study (trial registration number: NCT01703689) investigating the impact of an intervention based on geriatric education with NH staff on quality indicators of care. First, we developed an indicator of PIDP, combining explicit and implicit criteria, identifying 71% of PIDP in NH residents at baseline. NH organizational (access to psychiatric advice and/or to hospitalization in a psychiatric unit) and structural (presence of a special care unit for dements) variables explained part of PIDP. In a second part, in order to validate the usefulness of this PIDP detection tool, we verified the long-term clinical impact of PIDP on adverse outcomes (death, number of hospitalizations...). We did not find any significant association between PIDP and death, nor between PIDP and number of hospitalizations. Finally, the general intervention implemented in the IQUARE study significantly reduced PIDP among NH residents at 18-month follow-up. Our research has provided important aspects that should be consider when constructing further new studies seeking to change prescribing patterns and to reduce the total number of drugs taken, but also to determine the final impact of these changes on clinical outcomes.

Institution/department: Charles University, Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Kralove, Department of Social and Clinical Pharmacy Title of diploma thesis: The rational use of proton pump inhibitors among geriatric patients in the Czech Republic Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Daniela Fialova, PharmDr. Ph.D. Author: Ivana Geletova Introduction: The dynamic process of ageing requires adequate attention at a global level, mainly in the area of providing a proper healthcare. Ageing process is specific by significant involutional changes and is often complicated by higher polymorbidity and polypharmacotherapy. Therefore, it is necessary to eliminate the negative impact of possible drug-related and nondrug-related risk factors and to ensure the rational use of medicines. Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are one of the most frequently prescribed classes of drugs in older adults, administered especially for the treatment of gastrointestinal tract (GIT) disorders associated with increased secretion of gastric acid and/or impairment of GIT or as a preventive treatment of potential drug-related and other gastropathies. This diploma thesis focused on evaluating the prevalence of use of PPIs among geriatric patients in acute, ambulatory and pharmacy settings of healthcare in the Czech Republic, in the EUROAGEISM H2020...