Rational Medicine Use

Treatment and care of the paediatric population requires careful attention. It presents particular challenges because of physiological differences across different ages. There are many opportunities to examine prescribing trends and therapeutic outcomes for this population group.

Our current research projects include:

• Can a ‘treat to target’ pathway for juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) improve outcomes for patients?
• The preparedness of secondary caregivers, such as teachers, to provide medication

Principal investigators: Dr. Alan Worsley

Medicines are becoming increasingly complex and patients are being given more preventative medicine. The prescriptions focus on improving their health and ultimately prolong their life. This type of chronic prescribing is not without risk. It has the potential for complications leading to polypharmacy and adverse drug events. Our research focuses on examining chronic prescribing habits to:

• optimise the initial treatment
• mitigate any associated risk

Our research projects focus on medication use and optimization among vulnerable people, including:

• older people
• people with life-limiting illness
• those in deprived communities

Our projects also look at deprescribing of medication and how patients should be monitored and followed up.

Principal investigators: Dr Adam Todd and Prof. Andrew Husband

The development and evaluation of novel digital technologies are central to the progression of:

• pharmacy
• wider healthcare profession
• medication safety

The development and implementation of ePrescribing risk and safety evaluation tools to aid medication-related decision support and identify areas to be optimised to improve patient safety are one important dimension in this area. The outcomes from such tools and approaches include the identification of good practice and the improvement and optimisation of e-prescribing systems for patient benefit.

The development of ePrescribing risk and safety evaluation tools aid medication-related decision support. An important dimension in this area is to identify measures that can improve patient safety. The outcomes from such tools and approaches benefit patients through:

• the identification of good practice
• the improvement and optimisation of e-prescribing systems

Within this research area, our goals are:

• To innovate and develop novel health and social care technologies in areas of strategic importance to our society
• To co-design, implement and evaluate a digital intervention to improve older people’s health and wellbeing during key life course transitions
• To leverage a wide range of digital data to develop a framework for detecting dementia-causing diseases at their very earliest stage

 Principal investigator: Dr Sarah Slight

Community pharmacists are the most frequent point of contact for patients amongst the disciplines within the community healthcare team. As such, community pharmacists can contribute to the public health agenda. Plus, they can make a significant impact on patients’ health and wellbeing.

Our approach is to plan and tackle the longitudinal research questions. We can then evaluate the community pharmacist role in the delivery and management of public health initiatives. Plus, we will evaluate the drivers and interventions required to improve health and wellbeing.

The aims of this area of research are:

• Community pharmacy as a hub for improving health and healthcare for people who struggle to access healthcare services, whether because of developmental disabilities, mental illness, or socioeconomic circumstances
• Role of community pharmacies in early disease detection, including the delivery of screening initiatives

 Principal investigator: Dr Adam Todd