BRISMED
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Pragmatic Evaluation of Effectiveness and Acceptability of the Bristol Medication Review Toolkit
IRAS ID
327920
Contact name
Deborah McCahon
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Bristol
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
At a medication review a patient meets a GP or pharmacist to discuss the medicines they are using. Medication reviews are important to check that medicines are the right ones for the patient and their conditions. Reviews check that medicines are being used in a safe and effective way. Medication reviews are part of normal health care. But research shows that these reviews do not always improve care. Also, patients are not always involved in decisions about their medicines.
To improve medication reviews, researchers at the University of Bristol worked with doctors, pharmacists, and patients to develop the “Bristol Medication Review toolkit”. The toolkit gives professionals advice about how to do a review. It gives patients advice about how to get the most from a review.
We now want to find out if giving GP practices the toolkit improves medication reviews and if patients and professionals find the toolkit easy to use.
To do this:
1. We will give the toolkit to 500 GP practices across the UK, alongside advice on how to use it.
2. We will compare medication use in the GP practices using the toolkit with 500 practices not using it. We will collect information recorded in GP practice computer systems. We want to find out if medicines are being used safely, and other things like the number of medicines being given to patients. We will look for other changes in the use of health services (for example, hospital admissions).
3. We will ask professionals about their experience of using the toolkit. A survey will be sent to some patients to find out about their experiences of their review. We will audio-record some medication reviews, survey GP practices, and collect information from practice computer systems, to find out how practices do medicine reviews, with and without the toolkit.REC name
West of Scotland REC 1
REC reference
24/WS/0031
Date of REC Opinion
27 Mar 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion