Polypharmacy

This is a prospective, multi-phase interventional study evaluating the clinical utility and efficacy of POLYMED-a bilingual (Arabic/English) web-based, explainable-AI medication risk calculator-on optimizing geriatric medication safety in Muscat primary care. The primary objective is to evaluate whether deploying this clinical decision support software at the point of care systematically reduces potentially inappropriate prescribing (PIP) and polypharmacy among elderly patients. The study protocol integrates baseline parameterization with an active clinical intervention: * Phase 1 \& 2 (Baseline \& Tool Validation): A baseline cross-sectional assessment of elderly patients is conducted to quantify local prescribing burdens via international criteria (2023 AGS Beers / STOPP/START v3). These prospective baseline data are used to calibrate and validate the OPIP Score engine powering the POLYMED calculator. * Phase 3 (Active Intervention Phase): A prospective before-and-after trial evaluates the direct clinical effect of the tool. Clinicians are assigned by the study protocol to actively deploy the POLYMED calculator at the point of care during consultations. The trial measures the resulting changes in polypharmacy burden and medication spending compared to standard, routine care.

This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a health literacy promotion program in preventing chronic kidney disease (CKD) among patients who use multiple medications (polypharmacy). Participants will be divided into two groups: an experimental group receiving the health literacy program and a control group receiving standard care. The study will measure improvements in health literacy levels and CKD prevention behaviors over a specific period. It is expected that the program will help patients better manage their medications and reduce the risk of developing kidney complications.

To examine the effect of a cross-sectoral medication review intervention to admitted multi-morbid, polypharmacy patients aged 65+ at SHS in two settings; an acute admission unit (typical admission time \< 48 hours) and a medical outpatient setting (patients routinely visits for follow-up, diagnosis or treatment, but do require a bed or overnight care).

The aim of this study is to identify and assess new health-associated risk factors, including clinical-pharmacological risk factors. The cohort is built using telecommunication approaches. The associations between clinical-pharmacological, social, demographic, behavioral, and environmental characteristics will be assessed. The continuous depersonalized online survey is performed using the original informational resources in the form of specially designed web-site aimed at identification and assessment of population-based pharmacotherapy patterns including characteristics of self-medication, biologically active food supplement intake, polypharmacy, and adverse drug-drug interactions in the people residing in the ecological conditions of various regions of the country. The invitations to participate in the online survey are sent via the SMS messages using the SMS-Target tool provided by OOO T2 Mobile Company. The survey is performed online at www.zdorov.tpu.ru and www.zdorov.expert both specifically designed for questionnaire publication and data accumulation.

Medication adherence is one of the biggest challenges faced by healthcare systems, especially among people with multiple chronic diseases who take several medications daily. Studies show that up to half of patients do not take their medication as prescribed, which can compromise treatment effectiveness, increase complications, and lead to waste of healthcare resources. In this context, several solutions have been developed to help patients organize their therapy, such as dose administration aids (DAAs) used in pharmacies. However, many of these systems are manual, inflexible, or difficult to use. This study is part of the MobiMAd@PT project, which will evaluate Mobili®, a portable digital medication dispenser developed in Norway. Mobili® allows patients to automatically receive the right medication at the right time and comes with a real-time monitoring system, enabling healthcare professionals to detect missed doses and provide timely support. The main goal of this study is to assess the effectiveness of Mobili® in improving medication adherence among patients with polypharmacy in Portugal and to understand whether this type of technology can be useful and applicable in the context of Portuguese community pharmacies. Your participation will contribute to the development of new ways to manage health at home, with the support of pharmacists and technology.

By 2030, the majority of World Trade Center (WTC) rescue and recovery workers (responders) will be aged 65 and over and at risk for aging-related conditions and consequences including the concurrent use of five or more medications (i.e., polypharmacy). The purpose of this research study is to investigate an educational approach targeting polypharmacy through de-prescribing unnecessary and burdensome medications via the support of informed discussions between WTC responders and their prescribing physicians.

Background: Taiwan is experiencing rapid population aging, with a growing prevalence of chronic diseases and functional impairments among older adults. Existing Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE) programs focus primarily on screening but lack sufficient follow-up and intervention. In response, the HI-HOPE Project was developed to establish a community-based, multidisciplinary intervention model to enhance intrinsic capacity and promote healthy aging in rural elderly populations. Survey and Screening: The study will be conducted in 30 community centers across Yunlin County, targeting older adults aged ≥55 years. Participants will undergo biannual screenings over two years, assessing cognitive function, depression, mobility, vitality (nutrition), hearing, vision, osteoporosis, polypharmacy, urological health, and social participation \& welfare. Intervention: Participants will be randomly assigned to either: HI-HOPE Integrated Care Group: On-Site Community Interventions: Exercise training, mindfulness, social activities, oral and swallowing rehabilitation, hearing and vision training. Telehealth \& Remote Education: Digital health monitoring, remote consultations, and health education. Referral Services: Access to specialized medical care, transportation assistance, and follow-up support. Control Group: Standard community care services without additional structured interventions. Outcome Measures: Primary outcomes include changes in intrinsic capacity of functional health metrics, including abnormalities of I-COPE components (mobility, cognitive status, depression, hearing, vision, vitality) . Secondary outcomes assess quality of life, activities of daily living, hospitalization, emergency visits, falls, and mortality rates over two years. Significance: This project integrates digital health technologies, interdisciplinary care, and community-based interventions to improve elderly health outcomes. The findings will guide the future scalability of integrated aging care models in Taiwan and beyond.

Elderly GP patients are often treated with five or more medications and therefore prone to adverse drug reactions (ADR). Potentially inappropriate prescriptions (PIPs) lead to increased adverse events like falls, hospitalizations and mortality. The primary aim of this study to reduce the frequency of ADRs in multimorbid patients aged 70 years and older by reducing polypharmacy.

Background and Objective: Intensive Care Units (ICUs) save lives, but many ICU survivors face ongoing health issues, including adverse drug events (ADEs) from medications started during their hospital stay. These ADEs lead to emergency department visits and hospital admissions. Our project aims to improve the health of ICU survivors by creating a clinic that focuses on managing post-ICU health. The clinic will track and address medical issues that arise after ICU discharge and focus on deprescribing, or safely stopping, medications that may no longer be needed or could be harmful. Project Plan: The clinic will be set up within the CARES clinic at VGH. Patients will be enrolled when they leave the ICU and will have follow up visits after hospital discharge. During these visits, the team will review each patient's medications and develop a personalized plan to reduce or stop unnecessary medications. We will also monitor patients for any new health issues that arise and provide eduction to patients and caregivers about managing their health. Research and Evaluation: We will collect and analyze data on patient health outcomes, including the incidence of ADEs, hospital reeadmissions, and emergency department visits. We hope to show that patients who receive follow up care have better health outcomes and use fewer healthcare resources than a historical cohort. This data will help us demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of the clinic and support the need for expanding ICU follow up programs in British Columbia. Long-term goals: We plan to establish a post-ICU care working group and expand the clinic model to other hospitals. Over the long term, we hope to standardize post-ICU care across BC, ensuring that all ICU survivors have access to comprehensive follow up care. This project will also lay the groundwork for future research on deprescribing medications for ICU related complications, which tend to improve or resolve once critical illness has resolved. The CCRP clinic will provide a setting to conduct clinical deprescription trials to establish whether long-term treatment of these complications is necessary. Conclusion: Establishing a post-ICU discharge follow up clinic with a focus on deprescription has the potential to improve the long-term health and quality of life for ICU survivors. By reducing unnecessary medications, we can prevent complications, reduce hospital readmissions and demonstrate the value of comprehensive post-ICU follow up care.

Research in acute care faces many challenges, including enrollment challenges, legal limitations in data sharing, limited funding, and lack of singular ownership of the domain of acute care. To overcome some of these challenges, the Center of Acute Care of the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands, has established a de novo data-, image- and biobank named "Acutelines". Acutelines is initiated to improve recognition and treatment of acute diseases and obtain insight in the consequences of acute diseases, including factors predicting its outcome. Thereby, Acutelines contributes to development of personalized treatment and improves prediction of patient outcomes after an acute admission.

Medication management services (MMS) is a pharmacist-led service of optimizing the medication use and health outcomes, by promoting medication safety and enhancing the ability in self-management of health and diseases of patients and their caregivers. Yet, only limited evidence on the implementation of MMS service in Hong Kong is available. The goal of this clinical trial is to evaluate the cost effectiveness and effects of implementing MMS in community pharmacies owned by 8 non-government organizations (NGOs) in Hong Kong on humanistic and clinical outcomes in patients with hypertension and/or type II diabetes mellitus. The clinical trial aims to look into the following aspects: * To evaluate the perception and satisfaction of patients on MMS service * To investigate whether MMS could improve patients' adherence to their medication regimen, health-related quality of life, health outcomes and health service utilization, as well as their ability to understand and cope with their illness and drug-related problems * To identify and categorize the types of drug-related problems identified during MMS * To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of implementing MMS in community pharmacies MMS services will be rolled out in a total of 8 NGO community pharmacies progressively (2 pharmacies per phase) in 4 successive phases. Participants will complete the questionnaires at the following time points throughout the trial, namely 1) during recruitment, 2) baseline (1 month before MMS), 3) 3 months after MMS begins, 4) 12 months after MMS begins, and 5) 24 months after MMS begins. Researchers will compare the results of questionnaires conducted at different time points to identify the potential changes in the effects of MMS. Furthermore, researchers will link up the electronic health records of the participants and identify the potential changes in the health outcomes and health service utilizations after receiving MMS.

This project will generate a prospective cohort of geriatric patients with polypharmacy which will be characterized for vulnerability profiles of adverse drug reactions.