Collaboration between doctors and pharmacists the key
If doctors and pharmacists work together to ensure people with heart failure take their medicines correctly, hospitalisations can be reduced, University of South Australia (UniSA) research has found.
The research involved developing a collaborative model for ensuring heart failure patients take their medicine properly.
Study lead-author, Dr Libby Roughead from UniSA’s School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, said the rate of hospitalisation was cut by 45% in the first year of being part of a collaborative medicines review.
“If you have heart failure, getting a home visit with your pharmacist and then having a follow-up visit with your doctor about your medicines can keep you out of hospital,” Dr Roughead said.
The Australian-based study followed 273 heart failure patients over the age of 65, who underwent collaborative medicine review and compared them to 5,444 controls who didn’t have their medicines reviewed.
