The Health Innovation Network (HIN) Polypharmacy Programme aims to support local systems and primary care to identify patients at potential risk of harm and support better conversations about medicines by promoting shared decision making.
Working with a range of project partners and patients, our changing public behaviour workstream focused on the small-scale testing and evaluation of the acceptability of public-facing materials to encourage patients to think about their medicines and be better prepared for their structured medication review.
Evaluation with patients and clinicians informed the redesign and repackaging of an easy to implement suite of evidence-based patient resources launched nationally in September 2023. Evaluation shows that patients who receive the resources ahead of their SMR and in their own language are more likely to attend their SMR and are more engaged and prepared. Clinicians report better conversations with patients about their medicines, improved quality of SMRs and an increase in interventions taken to address problematic polypharmacy.
