How to Make Polypharmacy Safer
At European Connected Health Alliance (ECHAlliance) we just published a video about Medication Safety. The video talks about the risks of polypharmacy, the concurrent use of many medications, which occurs more and more often due to the ageing populations in the EU.
The video was authored by a working group active within ECHAlliance, called the Medicines Optimisation Working Group (MOWG), established in 2016 and chaired by Professor Michael Scott. MOWG has authored the first in the series of 4 Medication Safety videos planned to come out in 2020.
Polypharmacy is a serious and significant public health challenge. We cannot avoid polypharmacy, but we can make it safer. The strategic advice the MOWG gives to the policy and decision makers is the following:
- Raising awareness among professionals and patients is necessary
- Strategic plans of health and care organisations need to include it
- Physicans’, nurses’ and pharmacists’ combined knowledge is required
We are all responsible for the risks and problems caused by polyhparmacy.
The authors from 7 European countries, all professionals in pharmacy or pharmacology, made sure that the content is aligned with the WHO report on “Medication Safety in Polypharmacy” issued 2017.
If you are personally involved in the topic of medicines optimisation, you can join the MOWG too. Please apply for membership at ECHAlliance and then join us in creation of the three more videos about medication safety in 2020. We also look for sponsors.
For more information please visit echalliance.com/mowg.
