Making the Right Decision

High risk medicines are defined as medicines that have a high risk of causing injury or harm if they are misused or used in error. Error rates with these medications are not necessarily higher than with any other medicines, but when problems occur, the consequences can be more significant. A number of high risk prescribing safety indicators have been identified.

We talk to Dr Ann Wales, @Ann_Wales who is the Programme Director for Knowledge and Decision Support at the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre, and she manages the National Decision Support Programme and its Right Decision Service.

We also hear from Dr Scott Jamieson, @DocScott82 a GP in Tayside and member of RCGP Scottish Council, who is one of the most enthusiastic GPs in Scotland and has an interest in Quality Improvement, among many other things. He has tried out the Right Decision Support tool which alerts prescribers to potentially harmful combinations of medications, using algorithms triggered by specific conditions, patient age, and values like blood pressure and renal function. All the GPs who have tried out the tool so far want to keep it!

Anyone who is a prescriber will be interested to hear more about this useful new tool, which will be made available across Scotland soon.

The DQIP study

Scottish Polypharmacy guidance

Right Decision App library

BJGP paper with high risk prescribing indicators (table 2)

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