Optimising Medication Reviews in Nephrology v1.1
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Optimising medication reviews in nephrology: A person-based approach to design and test in patients with an EGFR <30ml/min/1.73m2, including dialysis.
IRAS ID
362937
Contact name
Catherine Margaret Pogson
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University Of Southampton
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 23 days
Research summary
Over eighty percent of kidney patients take five or more regular medications (polypharmacy), and over forty percent take ten or more (hyper polypharmacy). The level of prescribing potentially increases the risk of side effects, hospital admission and death and increases as kidney function deteriorates.
National and international recommendations suggest that medication should be reviewed regularly to identify and reduce inappropriate medication and support adherence. Yet this does not happen routinely due to multiple prescribers with a lack of clearly defined roles and responsibilities, poor co-ordination of care, and barriers to the flow of information.
Kidney specialists regularly review medications for people living with a kidney function less than 30ml/min/1.73m2, including dialysis. Yet it is unknown how to integrate specialist kidney knowledge into medication reviews to optimise patient outcomes.
The research will investigate how kidney specialists (nephrologists and pharmacists) and primary care staff (GPs and practice-pharmacists) could best work together with patients living with reduced kidney function to perform regular medication reviews. There are two studies.
Study 1(three phases) will design a structured medication review for patients with a kidney function less than 30ml/min/1.73m2 and is expected to last for 15 months.
Phase 1. Interviews with adult kidney patients and carers (15) and their healthcare clinicians (15) to understand the current experiences of medication and a medication review for kidney patients.
Phase 2. Information from Phase 1, will be integrated with evidence and theory to develop the intervention: a structured medication review process using pharmacists, nephrologists and GPs and involving kidney patients and their families in decisions about medicines.
Phase 3. The medication review intervention will be refined through workshops with healthcare professionals (18), patients and carers (6), at their kidney centre (Wessex, Kings and Royal Free).
Study 2 an initial feasibility and acceptability test of the intervention. (subject to a separate amendment).REC name
West Midlands - Edgbaston Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
26/WM/0123
Date of REC Opinion
22 Jun 2026
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion