Medicines Optimisation and patient safety
NIHR CLAHRC learning event
Background
The need for medicines optimisation is widely recognised.
NIHR CLAHRC’s in Northwest London, North West Coast, North Thames, West Midlands, South West Peninsular have projects aimed at medicines optimisation and patient safety. Some have a lot of experience of improving services in this area and others are exploring this area of work further.
NIHR CLAHRC North West London has supported a number of projects in acute settings in North West London over 7 years. Most recently Chelsea and Westminster Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust have made progress in projects in relation to medicines reconciliation and to embedding medication review in caring for patients. This increases the safety and efficiency of medicines prescribed and improves communication with patients and GPs. In addition, we have supported the development, use and evaluation of `My Medication Passport’ to aid improved communication about medicines use, especially at transitions of care and with the intention of enhancing patient safety.
http://clahrc-northwestlondon.nihr.ac.uk/resources/mmp
In recent communications with other NIHR CLAHRCs around the country we have become aware that there is a lot of learning that we can share together on the topic of medicines optimisation and patient safety. We would therefore like to host an event to progress this.
Aim of the Learning Event
The primary aim of the learning event is to share and speed-up cross-site learning from projects funded by or associated with NIHR CLAHRC. Some projects have a lot of experience and knowledge, others may be nearer the beginning of their journeys. All will have interesting learning about how they’ve adapted evidence and operationalised it in different contexts.
Expected outcomes
To create a report based on the abstracts and the event that demonstrates recent learning.
There is the potential to create a learning and research network; to make a synthesis of outstanding research questions; and to make recommendations based upon recent research.
Where and when the learning event will take place
The learning event will take place in London on Monday 16th January 2017. Registration from 9.30am, event starting at 10.00 am and finishing at 15.30pm. Venue: London, place to be confirmed.
Who should attend?
Anyone funded by or associated with an NIHR CLAHRC who is part of a team involved in medicines optimisation/patient safety research or quality improvement projects and who wishes to present their work and learn from others. Academics, researchers, health care professionals, managers, patients, carers, industry representatives. Please note: you do not have to be formally supported by NIHR CLAHRC to present an abstract or to attend. The event will be free of charge. Lunch will be provided. Delegates will be responsible for their own travel and any other expenses.
Why you should attend
The event will be an opportunity for participants to:
- Present work in progress, recently completed, or a project you may be considering starting.
- Receive feedback and support from a broad audience;
- Network
- Consider future priorities
- Consider inter-CLAHRC opportunities to support each other
- Achieve a wider audience for your work
- Consider setting up an on-going collaborative learning and research network
Call for abstracts
We know from the evidence that there is a need to improve:
- Identification of medicines related safety incidents and addressing issues identified
- Identification of adverse drug reactions and addressing issues identified
- Good use of comprehensive medication review and deprescribing
- Communication of medication-related information when patients cross the boundaries of care, e.g., from primary to acute; acute to primary or community care
- Medicines reconciliation
- Patient-clinician collaborative learning and patient-centred care
- Patient engagement, activation/empowerment
- Patient information and support
- Economic analysis of improvements
We are looking for expressions of interest to show-case: improvements to any aspect of medicines optimisation in any health or care setting that you are involved in; or recent research that is near completion or completed. This can be published or unpublished work.
Next steps
All abstracts will be peer reviewed by an expert panel of academics and clinicians. If you are successful, you will be asked to present your work in one of the following:
- Plenary presentation
- Poster Presentation
Please send us an abstract of no more than 500 words by week beginning 21st November, and not later than Thursday 17th November at 17.00 hours to:
Susan Barber, Improvement Science Manager, Frailty Theme, CLAHRC for North West London, c/o Chelsea & Westminster Hospital Foundation Trust, Lift Bank D, 4th Floor, 369 Fulham Road, London SW10 9NH email:
A decision after panel review will be communicated to you by week beginning 5th December 2016.
Submission options and abstract formats
Abstracts can be submitted for oral and/or poster presentation. When submitting an abstract, the preferred type of presentation should be indicated:
- Oral presentation
- Poster presentation
Oral and poster submissions are subject to the same acceptance criteria (see below). However, it is likely that more abstracts will be submitted for oral presentations than there are slots available within the programme and so the peer review panel will decide which of these will be invited for oral presentation and which for as poster presentations. These decisions will be made with the aim of creating a programme of high quality research and reflects contributions from a range of topics, theoretical perspectives, and methodologies.
Oral presentations will last for 30 minutes and will describe the background, methods, findings and discussion to the study concerned. We recognise that not all studies will be completed and so presenting early findings for discussion is acceptable.
Poster Presentations will be displayed at the venue and delegates will be able to view and authors can comment/answer questions.
Abstracts should include:
Title: 15 words or fewer
Author(s) details (name and affiliation): First name(s) followed by surname(s); Institution of affiliation (if applicable), country. The first author is the presenting author.
The body of the text should be no longer than 500 words and include:
Background: State the primary objectives of the study, including the main research questions, aims or theory being tested.
Methods: Quantitative studies should include design, participants (including number of participants), measures and analysis; qualitative studies should include design, participants, methods of data collection and analysis, e.g. thematic analysis, discourse analysis, interpretative phenomenological analysis.
Findings: Quantitative studies should include a summary of the results (accompanied by important statistical information); qualitative studies should include a description of the main findings such as the themes or categories generated.
Discussion: Conclusions and/or some discussion of the possible contribution to, or implications of the research in improving health and care.
Please include (a list of) references at the end of your abstract. Please define abbreviations.
These criteria will be taken into account when decisions are made as to which oral and poster submissions are included in the Agenda for the learning event.