Medicines optimisation and pharmaceutical care are both terms used across the UK to address the problems associated with sub-optimal medication use and to ensure patients are ‘getting the most out of, and making the best use of, medicines’. This is a core role for pharmacists and their support teams and encompasses all aspects of medicines use including:
- decisions about which medicines are chosen to treat which conditions, in which patient groups and settings
- how medicines are supplied
- how medicines are prescribed and accessed
- how patients actually use, understand and experience medicines in the context of their lives.
Aspects of the patient experience, medicines safety, the delivery of effective outcomes and integration between professional boundaries and health care settings is vital for successful optimisation of medicines.
Our archived Medicines Optimisation projects are: