“Guidelines on medication review” has just been published by the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & HealthCare (EDQM). This work provides essential guidance on medication review processes that will enable healthcare professionals to conduct structured and systematic evaluations of patients’ medicines.
Collaborative medication reviews performed by healthcare professionals and patients serve to assess actual and potential medicine-related problems, optimising medicine use and ensuring the best possible health outcomes for the patients. Already implemented in the healthcare systems of several countries, the approach is based on medico-economic studies that provide full evidence of its added value for public health and its positive cost-benefit ratio.
These guidelines, drafted by the Committee of Experts on Quality and Safety Standards in Pharmaceutical Practices and Pharmaceutical Care (CD-P-PH/PC), are the result of extensive consultation among experts from academia, community and hospital pharmacy and representatives of national competent authorities. They are intended to promote adherence to Council of Europe Resolution CM/Res(2020)3 on the implementation of pharmaceutical care for the benefit of patients and health services.
This work will be of particular use to national competent authorities and policy makers, pharmacists and healthcare professionals conducting medication review, and for health service organisations establishing medication review programmes.
“Guidelines on medication review” can be downloaded for free online from FreePub, the EDQM’s platform for free publications. The paper version can be ordered from the EDQM WebStore.
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