Abstract
There is an increasing number of people living with multiple chronic illnesses and consequently taking multiple medicines. More than 50% of these patients will have concomitant diseases that complicate management and will see multiple providers to manage their conditions. This increases their risk of medication-related problems, adverse events and poor treatment outcomes. All of these patients are at high risk of medication misadventure and most will have at least four medication-related problems, of which more than half will be resolvable. The management of medication in these patients will require the increasing involvement of pharmacists to provide a number of cognitive services including medication reconciliation, medication review, adherence services and proactive adverse reaction monitoring. This needs to be integrated into models of practice that coordinate care between multiple providers and accommodate both patient and provider preferences.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the support of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs who provided the data that is included and reviewed the final manuscript.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
The authors are supported by an Australian Research Council/National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia Ageing Well Ageing Productively Program Grant. The work was independent of the funding source. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.