Press | MOIC

Rapid review of pharmacy services changed in response to Covid-19

by Edel O'Sullivan, | Sep 24, 2020 | News Release, Press

MOIC complied this report and captured the changes to pharmacy services that were implemented in the Health and Social Care (HSC) service in Northern Ireland during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, between March and May 2020.

It describes the wide range of interventions by pharmacy teams that were necessary to ensure that patients and the public had access to medicines and pharmaceutical care throughout the emergency.

The review makes a number of recommendations for actions needed to prepare for future waves of the pandemic and inform changes needed to support the longer term rebuilding of HSC services.

To view the report in full click here.

World Patient Safety Day

by Edel O'Sullivan, | Sep 17, 2020 | News Release, Press, Uncategorized

It’s World Patient Safety Day and it is a day to highlight that patient safety is at the forefront of everything we do.

MOIC is the only dedicated medicines optimisation centre in Europe and we work across Europe to improve medicines use, leading to better patient care. We provide research, project management and offer professional expertise on projects that will improve patient safety through correct medicines use. We engage with partners across Europe and throughout the world on best practice and bring his learning back to Northern Ireland.

Today on World Patient Safety Day, take a look at some of our recent publications, the first examines how medicine optimisation clinics can reduce hospital readmission and the second looks at critical care drug use in ICU during Covid. Both these projects had patient safety as the key driver.

Medicine Optimisation reducing Hospital re-admission

This work looked at how educating patients on their medicine use through dedicated clinics could lead to fewer hospital patients.

https://themoic.hscni.net/medicine-optimisation-reducing-hospital-readmission/

Results

Readmission rate reduction at 30 days was 9.6%
Reduction in multiple readmissions over 180-days was 29.1%

Critical Care Drug Requirements

https://themoic.hscni.net/critical-care-drug-requirements-during-covid-19/

The main aim of this work was to develop a process to estimate critical care drug requirements to robustly inform regional procurement planning and preparedness in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The objectives were to identify critical care drugs required, obtain patient usage data and consider current regional practice to establish the requirement.

Medicine Optimisation reducing hospital readmission

by Edel O'Sullivan, | Sep 9, 2020 | News Release, Press

There is a major drive within healthcare to reduce patient readmissions to hospital. MOIC has led research on how a medicines optimisation clinic can change readmission to hospital rates and lead to better patient care.

The research focused on assessing the impact of a post-discharge, pharmacist-led medicines optimisation clinic on readmission within the respiratory and cardiology wards

Adult patients with acute unplanned admission to medical wards were invited to attend clinic to review their medicines and educate patients on proper use of their medicines.

Results

Readmission rate reduction at 30 days was 9.6%
Reduction in multiple readmissions over 180-days was 29.1%

A positive impact was also demonstrated in relation to patient beliefs about their medicines and medication adherence.

Anita Hogg Northern Health and Social Trust

“Having delivered the medicines optimisation clinic and supported patients in the safe and effective use of their medicines, I’m delighted that this paper has been published, reinforcing the benefits of a dedicated medicines optimisation clinic to patient care after discharge from hospital”

The post-discharge medicines optimisation clinic was beneficial from a patient care and cost perspective.

Full paper can be found here.

Critical care drug requirements during Covid 19

by Edel O'Sullivan, | Jul 29, 2020 | News Release, Press

The critical care drug requirements paper by MOIC has now been published in EJHP and can be accessed via this link:

http://ejhp.bmj.com/cgi/rapidpdf/ejhpharm-2020-002368

The main aim of this work was to develop a process to estimate critical care drug requirements to robustly inform regional procurement planning and preparedness in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The objectives were to identify critical care drugs required, obtain patient usage data and consider current regional practice to establish the requirement.

Assuring the availability of critical medicines at the point of need during a pandemic is particularly complex. The balance between ‘normal’ supply and demand is eroded as demand escalates and organisations may order excess stock to maintain continuity of supply, placing further pressure on already constrained medicines and the supply chain.

A collaborative approach to planning is required, between manufacturers, wholesalers/suppliers, health departments, Trusts and medicines procurement specialists. A key component of this is to estimate critical drug requirements to meet demand, both currently and for the anticipated surge.

As a result of this work a regional database was constructed and used to produce a model for calculating approximate critical drug requirements. The model was used to map critical drug requirements to available stock in Trusts and wholesalers/suppliers, enabling the identification of treatment capacity for these medicines regionally, both currently and for projected surges. Data have also been used in the preparation of weekly regional situation reports for onward reporting to the HSC Board and the Department of Health.

Cathy Harrison, Chief Pharmaceutical Officer at the Department of Health, commenting ‘I very much welcome the development of the supply and demand model for critical care medicines and I support its use for managing and monitoring other groups of essential medicines and healthcare supplies at risk of potential shortages. The model provided essential information and assurance during the response to COVID-19 and I commend all those involved in its development’.

Pharmaceutical interventions and medicines optimisation are essential components of the healthcare response to COVID-19. Medicines are a clinical priority and are required to support both patients and front-line clinical staff in their efforts to deal with the virus and to optimise patient care. As a result, there has been an unprecedented global demand on supportive medicines, particularly in critical care.

Interview with Anita Hogg

The Covid 19 pandemic

by MOIC | Jun 1, 2020 | News Release, Press

The Covid 19 pandemic has meant that we have all had to adjust to new ways of working and MOIC are focusing their efforts on helping the region respond to the pandemic through research, assessment and evaluation of key areas. A number of colleagues work with MOIC in this area, including those from the emergency planning team, Ulster University and the Department of Health

The expertise at MOIC was called upon to lead a number of regional initiatives needed to help maintain access to critical healthcare supplies in high demand due to COVID-19. This includes:

· MOIC supporting regional efforts to secure additional PPE by providing technical assessment support to BSO.

· MOIC developing demand modelling systems for oxygen supplies in hospitals and the community, critical care medicines used in intensive care, palliative care medicines, renal replacement therapies, essential consumables for oxygen and ventilators.

We are also working closely with our colleagues in Healthcare Analytics to explore options around tagging of vital critical care equipment including ventilators and other essential equipment.

All of these projects are ongoing and we are hoping to publish findings in the near future.

MOIC and Ulster University to play leading role in new research into smart and healthy ageing

by MOIC | May 7, 2020 | News Release, Press

The Medicines Optimisation Innovation Centre (MOIC) hosted within the Northern Health and Social Care Trust and Ulster University have recently joined a major innovative inter-disciplinary health research project aimed at helping Europe’s ageing population to live actively and independently at home in their communities with the support of assisted living technology.

Funded by the European Commission under Horizon 2020, the research project has a value of €21 million and consists of a consortium of 36 partners across 14 European countries, and will run for four years. Led by the ALL (Assisting Living & Learning) Institute at Maynooth University, it is the largest European Commission funded health research grant to ever be led by an Irish university. The SHAPES acronym stands for Smart and Healthy Ageing through People Engaging in supportive Systems.

Citizens in a rapidly ageing European population are at greater risk of cognitive impairment, frailty and multiple chronic health conditions with considerable negative consequences for their independence, quality of life and for the sustainability of health and care systems. To help address this the SHAPES research aims to foster the large-scale deployment of integrated digital solutions which will bring greater independence and improved quality of life to citizens while demonstrating significant efficiency gains in health and care delivery across Europe.

Professor Mike Scott, MOIC commented:

“Very excited to be collaborating with a wide range of partners across 14 European countries on this project to improve Smart and Healthy Ageing. This is the first time MOIC have been involved in such a large scale project to improve healthcare and promote independence in an ageing community.”

The team from MOIC also includes Dr Glenda Fleming and Dr Claire Scullin

Professor Dewar Finlay, Engineering Research Director at Ulster University said:

“Ulster University is a recognised leader in data analytics and healthcare technology research. Caring for an ageing population is one of the biggest challenges we face as a society. Smart technologies are helping to move care out of hospital and into the home, reducing pressure on the healthcare system.

“We are delighted to partner with organisations across Europe on this vital research project to improve the lives of older people here in Northern Ireland and the rest of Europe. Our role in the SHAPES project spans a number of aspects of healthcare technology development including UX engineering, data analytics, ecosystem business models, impact assessment and activities relating to the development of health technology standards and interoperability.”

The multidisciplinary team from Ulster is made up Professors Dewar Finlay and Jim Mclaughlin from the School of Engineering, Dr Shirley Davey (Ulster Business School) and Dr Raymond Bond and Dr Mark Donnelly from the School of Computing.