Memos and Alerts
What is serotonin syndrome and which medicines cause it?
This Medicines Q&A prepared by UK Medicines Information outlines the causes and symptoms of serotonin syndrome and lists examples of medicines with the potential to cause serotonin syndrome.
Is there evidence to support the use of enteric coated (EC) aspirin to reduce gastrointestinal side effects in cardiovascular patients?
The enteric coated (EC) formulation was developed and marketed in an effort to reduce GI adverse effects associated with aspirin. This Medicines Q&A prepared by NHS Specialist Pharmacy Service reviews the evidence on the use of EC aspirin to prevent GI damage, and the effect of the enteric coating on anti-platelet effect of aspirin.
SNOMED CT to replace Read codes
SNOMED CT is the clinical vocabulary chosen to replace Read codes within the NHS. Coded information that is currently received from GP systems in Read codes will change to SNOMED CT and CCGs need to be ready for this.
The change to SNOMED CT must be adopted by all general practice service providers before 1 April 2018. This will affect those who add or extract data to or from clinical systems.
Medicines Adherence: Supporting patients with their treatment e-learning
King’s College London is re-launching their e-learning course aimed at pharmacists and other healthcare professionals to help patients improve their health through medicines adherence.
The free course, which will take place over a two-week period starting on 30th January 2017, is designed for healthcare professionals, but may also be of interest to those with an academic or personal interest in medicines adherence.
New and updated medicines optimisation ‘Key Therapeutic Topics’
Medicines optimisation: key therapeutic topics summarise the evidence-base on topics identified to support medicines optimisation, but are not formal NICE guidance.
These topics are selected and prioritised therapeutic areas where there are potential opportunities for maintaining or improving quality and improving value from our use of medicines. Releasing resources from one area of health care whilst maintaining or improving quality of care means those resources are available for use elsewhere, for example – the prescribing of innovative medicines.
MHRA Drug Safety Update January 2017
The January 2017 MHRA Drug Safety Update contains advice for healthcare professionals on:
– Direct-acting antiviral interferon-free regimens to treat chronic hepatitis C: risk of hepatitis B reactivation
– Direct-acting antivirals to treat chronic hepatitis C: risk of interaction with vitamin K antagonists and changes in INR
– Apremilast (Otezla ▼): risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviour
– Intravenous N-acetylcysteine (NAC) for paracetamol overdose: reminder of authorised dose regimen; possible need for continued treatment with NAC
Resources to support better understanding of kidney health and Acute Kidney Injury
NHS Improvement have issued a stage two alert to continue to raise awareness of AKI and signpost clinicians from all care settings, including GPs and community pharmacists, to a set of resources developed by Think Kidneys.
Sepsis toolkit for GPs – a reminder
The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), in partnership with Health Education England and NHS England, recently launched a new sepsis toolkit to support GPs and healthcare professionals to identify and manage the condition in patients.
Fosfomycin 3g sachets – a reminder
Prescribing fosfomycin as Monuril® is currently considerably more cost-effective than prescribing it generically.