Clinical Pharmacist today invites article submissions to showcase current and best practice in the area of polypharmacy and medicines optimisation.
This area is an increasing policy focus around the world, with the World Health Organization aiming to reduce severe avoidable medication related harm by 50% globally over five years since 2017[1]
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In the UK, around half of people aged 75 years take five or more medicines, and avoidable adverse drug reactions cause an estimated 712 deaths each year[2]
,[3]
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Articles covering the following topics are of particular interest:
- Evidence of current best practice and management of patients across all sectors (primary, secondary and care homes) relating to both ‘appropriate’ and ‘inappropriate’ polypharmacy;
- Innovative policies or schemes that seek to reduce patient harm from polypharmacy or medication errors;
- The use of tools and technologies to improve medication use or reduce harm;
- Schemes that aim to increase patient activation and/or knowledge about their medicines;
- Demonstration of the impact of pharmacists and pharmacy professionals in preventing medicines-related harm and/or deprescribing.
Article types accepted by Clinical Pharmacist include research, reviews, perspectives, insight, CPD and short communications (for more information refer to our author guidelines).
Technical information
Clinical Pharmacist provides credible, authoritative and high-quality resources on the clinical management of disease in relation to medicines and up-to-date information about advances in pharmacy and drug development.
Articles and ideas for potential articles should be submitted by email to submitcp@rpharms.com, with a cover letter explaining the importance of the work for the audience and clearly stating that the submission is in response to this call. All articles must be received by January 2019.
It is envisaged that articles submitted in response to this call and accepted for publication will be published under a ‘Special Report’ on www.pharmaceutical-journal.com.
Nigel Praities, executive editor, and Michael Dowdall, senior editor, research and learning, at Pharmaceutical Journal Publications
References
[1] World Health Organization. Medication Without Harm: WHO’s Third Global Patient Safety Challenge. 2017. Available at: http://www.who.int/patientsafety/medication-safety/en/ (accessed October 2018)
[2] Gao L, Maidment I, Matthews F et al. Medication usage change in older people (65+) in England over 20 years: findings from CFAS I and CFAS II. Age Ageing 2018;47:220–225. doi: 10.1093/ageing/afx158
[3] Elliott R, Camacho E, Campbell F et al. Prevalence and economic burden of medication errors in the NHS in England. 2018. Available at: http://www.eepru.org.uk/prevalence-and-economic-burden-of-medication-errors-in-the-nhs-in-england-2/ (accessed October 2018)
