In the Safe Use of Medicines theme we aim to:
- improve medicines safety through translational research that reduces the prescribing of medicines that are no longer needed; and
- increase the involvement of patients and carers in decisions about their care to strengthen continuity of medicines when patients are discharged from hospital into primary care.
Medicines are the most frequently used intervention in the UK NHS, and for many people they can improve quality of life and extend life expectancy. However, avoidable harm from medicines is widespread. Older patients are particularly vulnerable as they are often users of multiple medicines, making it difficult to identify which medicines are appropriate and which may no longer be.
Read the patient-friendly summaries of our first two research projects.
The Safe Use of Medicines team is committed to developing translational research that will allow:
- the timely identification of medicines which may no longer be appropriate and/or represent a risk to patients; and
- the development of solutions aimed at safely discontinuing problematic medicines in a process that will ensure patients’ views and participation in decisions about their care are prioritised.
Theme lead:
Deputy theme lead:
Key people: Dr Iuri Marques, Dr Andy Clegg, Professor John Young, Professor Theo Raynor, Dr Beth Fylan, Dr Duncan Petty; Dr Janice Olaniyan, George Peat.
PhD students: David Mehdizadeh; Daniel Okeowo; Victoria David.
