Student study: The value of domiciliary medication reviews
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The value of domiciliary medication reviews - stakeholder views
IRAS ID
232128
Contact name
Patricia McCormick
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University College London
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Z6364106/2017/11/51, Data Protection Registration; 18/NI/0049, REC (HSCRECB)
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 3 days
Research summary
Domiciliary Medication Review (DMR) services are becoming more popular. A DMR service involves an in-depth review of a patient’s medication and how these medications are managed (i.e. does the individual know how and when to take their medication), usually conducted by a pharmacist in the individual’s home. The aim of these reviews is to improve outcomes of service users through improved medication management (ability to take medication as prescribed) and optimisation (appropriateness of medication for the individual). The evidence base for these services is growing. However, published studies are of varying quality and mostly have a clinical focus; i.e.how did the clinician rate the outcome (as opposed to the patient themselves). Work needs to be done to examine the wider value of DMRs as this remains an unanswered question within the literature.
This study aims to answer this question. A variety of methods have been used to evaluate the value of these services. To date this has involved the development of a database for recording interventions, an evaluation of the usability of the (this) database and statistical interrogation of data extracted from the database.
The next stage in the research is to determine the value of DMR services to key stakeholders; namely service users, service providers and commissioners. Opinions will be sought through semi-structured interviews (i.e. interviewer will have some set questions they would like to ask, but the conversation direction can change depending on the information provided by the interviewee), focus groups and questionnaires respectively. Service users will be the focus of this study. The opinions of service users will be presented to and compared with the opinions of other stakeholders. Findings from all methods will be compared together (this using a methodology is generally known as triangulation) and it is hoped this will enable the development of a framework for evaluating these services in the future.REC name
HSC REC B
REC reference
18/NI/0049
Date of REC Opinion
5 Mar 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion