A project led by the doctor Emilie Anderssen Nordahl, a resident of Clinical Pharmacology at Vall d'Hebron University Hospital and predoctoral researcher of the clinical pharmacology group of Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), has received a Mutual Médica grant. The study aims to check how the systematic review of the medicalization plans of people living in nursing homes is working. This review is coordinated by the Area of Medicines of the Territorial Management of Barcelona (SAP Montanya) of the Catalan Institute of Health (ICS). The intervention is carried out by a multidisciplinary team that includes: a clinical pharmacologist, personnel from the Primary Care centers and staff from the reviewed centers. The teams centralize all the medical information to rule out incompatibilities, duplicities, or other cases involving danger or inappropriate use of drugs by this sector of the population considered extremely fragile. The project began in June 2020 and has already reviewed more than 25% of the residential places under the supervision of SAP Montanya. The action is included within the measures that seek to respond to the needs detected in geriatric residences during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The researchers will soon analyze the impact of the intervention and whether or not it has helped to promote a safer and healthier prescribing policy. With the data collected, individualized improvement plans will be created for each center and, if necessary, changes will be proposed in the prescribing circuit and in the reporting of information. The ultimate goal is to optimize the use of medications, avoiding incompatibilities, duplicities and medicalization of doubtful efficacy. The characteristics of people living in nursing homes, high rates of chronicity and comorbidity, make them particularly susceptible to inappropriate medication use, and therefore they are a sector that can benefit greatly from an intervention such as this. If the results are positive, similar actions could be extended to other ICS territorial managements.

The research led by physician Emilie Anderssen has received a grant of 25,000 € from Mutua Médica. For more than 30 years, this mutual company has been funding annually a research project of a resident in their last year or less than three years after finishing the MIR. The action seeks to promote medical research in investigators who are at an early stage of their career.