University Medical Center Utrecht | POINT-i

Sustainable embedding of interprofessional pharmacotherapeutic care in general practice

Medication errors are an urgent problem in healthcare. Improper use of medicines results in an average of 50,000 people in the Netherlands ending up in hospital every year, half of which among people over 65 are potentially avoidable. With an increasing ageing population and more people with polypharmacy and multimorbidity, this poses an increasing problem for patients and society. To prevent health harm and achieve more health gains from medication, quality improvement in pharmacotherapeutic primary care provision is necessary. However, in current healthcare practice, GPs often do not have enough expertise and time to optimise pharmacotherapy.

Pharmacist-pharmacotherapist and GP as a team

In an innovative interprofessional pharmacotherapeutic care model, with a so-called Pharmacist Pharmacotherapist (AF), who is fully trained and integrated into general practice working as a clinical pharmacotherapist and co-treatment provider, many of these problems are solved. The AF is an internationally accepted interprofessional care model that has been successfully applied in the United Kingdom for many years and of which several initiatives exist in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States. POINT-i focuses on achieving training and embedding the AF in general practice.

Applicant

University Medical Centre Utrecht (The Netherlands)

Consortium

• University Utrecht
• Foundation Leidsche Rijn Julius Gezondheidcentra

Grant

ZonMw Good Use of Medicines – Subsidieoproep Implementatie en opschaling van

kennis van het programma Goed Gebruik Geneesmiddelen in de praktijk