The latest research by Professor Luke Bereznicki, from the University of Tasmania's School of Medicine, is exploring the prevention of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in elderly patients.
Professor Bereznicki said ADRs, the unintended side-effects that arose from normal doses of medication used to treat or prevent diseases, accounted for around 15-20 percent of hospital admissions in the over 65s and were also a major source of mortality.
An estimated 90 per cent of these admissions are preventable.
“ADRs are responsible for the majority of the 250,000 medication-related hospital admissions annually in Australia, which cost us approximately $1.4 billion a year to manage,” Professor Bereznicki said.
“Increases in life expectancy, the prevalence of chronic disease in older age groups and in the use of a number of medicines raises the risk that older people will experience an adverse reaction.”
The research was supported by close to $300,000 in funding from the HCF Research Foundation.
“With the support of the HCF Research Foundation, we will conduct a randomised controlled trial to investigate the effectiveness of risk assessment using our Preventing Adverse Drug Reactions (PADR-EC) Score and targeted medication management recommendations by clinical pharmacists in reducing ADRs during hospitalisation and in the 12 months following discharge.”
The 2019 HCF grants aim to address key healthcare issues including aged care, pain management and the improvement of the hospital discharge process to enhance patient knowledge, with a strong potential for outcomes to be translated into practice.
