Medicine analysis: 70 percent less health risks for seniors!

Medicine analysis: 70 percent less health risks for seniors!

A new study shows that medication analyzes in pharmacies can contribute to drastically reducing the problems with drugs for patients in Austria. According to the investigation, which was carried out by the MedUni Vienna together with the Austrian Chamber of Pharmacists, medication analyzes can reduce the adverse effects of medication by an average of 70 percent. Around 500,000 people in Austria suffer from polypharmacy, which means that they have to take five or more medication every day, which often leads to interactions and other health complications, reported the chamber of pharmacists.

Important advantages of medication analysis

The medication analysis aims to systematically check the overall medication of a patient and, if necessary, identify medication that is no longer required. Study leader Christian Schörgenhofer explained that even with participants who took eight medication every day, significant drug -related problems were found in 14 Vienna pharmacies. After the analysis, there was a “highly significant reduction” of the problems, especially with regard to therapy adherence, which was improved by 60 percent, and health literacy, which increased by 65 percent. In addition, the number of medication was reduced by about ten percent, which surprised even the experts, as they emphasized in the reporting of krone.at and sn.at.

steps to the nationwide implementation

The Chamber of Pharmacists plans to offer this service across the board and hopes for a assumption of costs by social security. Mag. Raimund Podroschko, Vice President of the Chamber of Pharmacists, expressed the desire that medication analysis soon became accessible to all patients as a cash -financed service for all patients in order to secure health added value, especially for older or needy people. The study also showed the need to modernize the electronic health file (ELGA) in order to improve the cooperation between pharmacists and doctors and to optimize patient care. This was considered urgently necessary by various experts to increase the safety of the patients.