Spread and Scale of a Polypharmacy App

Summary

Medication overload is an epidemic causing widespread harm, particularly to older Canadians. While most prescriptions are intended to help people live longer and healthier lives, taking multiple medications can increase frailty, and lead to dangerous side effects.This is a mixed-methods study to determine the impact of MedReviewRx on prescribing in New Brunswick Nursing Homes (NBNHs). MedReviewRx is an application which allows MedSafer to analyze a person's medications and medical conditions and produce a report with suggestions for how to simplify medications and make them safer. MedSafer reports will be used to assist physicians and pharmacists identify potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) and conduct medication reviews in NBNHs. The prevalence of PIMs in NBNHs before MedReviewRx will be measured and the change in PIM use after implementation will be calculated. User experience with MedSafer reports and MedReviewRx will be explored. Patient and Family attitudes towards deprescribing will also be studied. Investigators hypothesize that implementing MedReviewRx in New Brunswick Nursing Homes (NBNHs) will promote deprescribing which will lead to a decrease in the number of PIMs and a decrease in medication costs for older adults living in NBNHs.

Conditions

• Polypharmacy
• Deprescribing
• Adverse Drug Event

Interventions

OTHER

MedReviewRx

During the intervention phase, MedReviewRx will be made available to nursing homes with the understanding that it will be used to facilitate medication reviews and prescription check-ups. MedReviewRx provides clinicians with access to individualized and prioritized deprescribing information from MedSafer which: a) identifies potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs), b) explains why the medication is potentially inappropriate and c) provides instructions on how to safely stop/taper the medication.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• McGill University Health Centre/Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre

  collaborator OTHER

• Horizon Health Network

  collaborator OTHER

• Missing Link Technologies

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• New Brunswick Community College

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Centre for Innovation and Research in Aging, Canada

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Carole Goodine, Pharm D · Horizon Health Network

• Emily McDonald, MD · McGill University Health Centre/Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

SEQUENTIAL

Eligibility

Min Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2021-08-01

Primary Completion

2022-07-31

Completion

2022-10-31

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations