Inhaler Switching – No Evidence of Negative Impact on Patients or Healthcare Utilisation
A self-controlled case series study led by researchers from the National Heart & Lung Institute and published in Thorax has found that “switching to an equivalent inhaler in patients with asthma or COPD appeared safe and did not negatively affect patient’s health or healthcare utilisation.” The researchers identified a cohort of 569,901 asthma and 171,231 COPD regular inhaler Continue Reading »
Managing Medicines for Adults receiving Community Social Care – Top Tips
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) and the Royal College of General Practitioners have collaborated to produce “Top tips for managing medicines for adults receiving social care in the community” – a resource for GPs and pharmacists, part of the Involved and informed: good community medicines support intiative to encourage better medicines support for people who are receiving social care Continue Reading »
AECOPD – CRP testing reduces antibiotic use
The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) have published a Signal highlighting the conclusion of a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine: “CRP-guided prescribing of antibiotics for exacerbations of COPD in primary care clinics resulted in a lower percentage of patients who reported antibiotic use and who received antibiotic prescriptions from clinicians, with no evidence Continue Reading »
Opioids for Persistent Pain – PROMPPT intervention
The National Institute for Health Research are funding a five year research programme to design and test a Proactive clinical Review of patients taking Opioid Medicines long-term for persistent Pain led by clinical Pharmacists in primary care Teams (PROMPPT intervention). The programme starts with the Q-PROMPPT study. Q-PROMPPT will use a range of methods to find out about patients, clinical pharmacists and GPs’ experiences and Continue Reading »