Comprehensive Medication Management Services as a Solution to Medication Mismanagement: A European Perspective

Abstract

Due to an increase in the prevalence of chronic diseases, medication use and their cost is rising rapidly. This scenario render chronic patients at an increased risk of experiencing drug therapy problems, subsequently leading to unfavourable clinical and economic outcomes. Thus, to ensure patients' optimal medication use and improve their clinical outcomes, a comprehensive and systematic management of medications is deemed crucial. Hence, Comprehensive Medication Management (CMM) services offered by trained pharmacists can fill this gap by decreasing the unnecessary and often harmful use of medicines and consequent resulting complications. Collaborative practice between pharmacists and general practitioners, together with patients' active participation in the definition of treatment regimens, plays an important role in the effectiveness of CMM services. CMM services is defined as the standard of care that ensures each patient's medications (prescription, non-prescription, alternative, traditional, vitamins, or nutritional supplements) are individually assessed to determine that each medication is appropriate for the patient, effective for the medical condition, safe given the comorbidities and other medications taken, and that the patient is able to take them as intended. It includes an individualized care plan that achieves the intended goals of therapy with appropriate follow-up to determine actual patient outcomes. Apart from the USA, several countries (e.g. Australia, Canada and Brazil) have managed to integrate CMM services into their existing health care system at the primary care level. However, in Europe, in spite of the widespread recognition of the need for medication management services, initiation and implementation of CMM services are lagging behind. Hence, for CMM services to become a reality in Europe and elsewhere, numerous prerequisites need to be accomplished, including policies and legal regulations supporting the provision of CMM services on a much larger scale, clearly defined and standardized professional practice and common language shared among the pharmacists, and well trained and experienced practitioners providing full-time, direct patient care. Sažetak: Sveobuhvatna uSluga upravljanja farmakoterapijom kao rješenje za propuSte u propiSivanju lijekova: europSka perSpektivaZbog porasta prevalencije kroničnih bolesti, potrošnja lijekova ubrzano raste. Uslijed toga, kronični bolesnici su izloženi povećanom riziku pojave terapijskih problema što dovodi do nepovoljnih kliničkih i ekonomskih ishoda liječenja. Stoga se smatra da je sveobuhvatno i sustavno upravljanje farmakoterapijom ključno za osiguranje optimalne uporabe lijekova kao i za poboljšanje kliničkih ishoda liječenja. Sveobuhvatna usluga upravljanja farmakoterapijom (engl. Comprehensive Medication Management Services, CMM services) koju provode posebno educirani ljekarnici može ponuditi rješenje za ovaj problem, smanjujući nepotrebnu, a često i štetnu primjenu lijekova te njene posljedične komplikacije. Kolaborativna praksa ljekarn...

The Impact of Pharmacist-Led Medication Management Services on the Quality of Life and Adverse Drug Reaction Occurrence

“…These findings denote that there is plenty of room for improvement in the care of elderly cardiovascular patients. Taking into consideration the increasing number of medications patients take, the ever more complex therapy regimens and the increasing number of healthcare professionals that can prescribe medications, on the one hand, and the lack of control over the prescription and consumption of medications, on the other [ 9 , 55 , 56 ], CMM services could serve as a solution to the evergrowing clinical, financial and humanistic burden of ADRs through more careful selection and more frequent monitoring of patients’ therapy. Furthermore, an extremely high prevalence of ADRs reported at patients’ initial assessment in this study must have contributed to the poor baseline patients’ quality of life pointing to the fact that a greater emphasis should be put on measuring the quality of life in patients with ADRs.…”

Comprehensive Medication Management Services with a Holistic Point of View, a Scoping Review

“…Within Latin America, Brazil [ 15 , 16 ] stands out for its early CMM implementation. In several Europe countries, uptake is much lower for numerous reasons [ 17 ].…”