This new study effort has the potential to assist Indigenous peoples and older Australians.
The government-backed Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre has initiated a A$1 million (about $700,000) research initiative to enable precise drug prescriptions for renal failure patients.
WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT
In collaboration with Northern Territory Health and the University of South Australia, the research institute will create a clinical decision support tool for healthcare professionals that will be delivered as a standalone service via an application programming interface, making it simple to integrate with existing prescribing or dispensing software systems.
They will develop a renal dose calculation algorithm based on NT Health's clinical data sets and other accessible medicine knowledge databases after analysing the context of medication prescription and dispensing in the first research phase. In the second phase, they will mimic the tool's effect in urban and rural primary clinics in the Northern Territory and South Australia.
The last study step included a clinical pilot in urban and rural primary health care centers and community pharmacy settings in the Northern Territory.
WHY DOES IT MATTER?
According to the UniSA study team, inaccurate drug selection and dosage for persons with damaged kidneys is a "common and avoidable problem." They discovered that almost a quarter of patients are given "inappropriate" drugs, which contribute to up to a tenth of adverse responses that might result in hospitalisations.
Libby Roughead, a UniSA professor who also heads the university's research team said that the digital solution addressing this issue has the potential to save 25,000 medication-related hospitalisations every year. Furthermore, medication-related issues cause over 250,000 hospital admissions each year, costing A$1.4 billion ($1 billion) each year, according to Dr. Terry Sweeney, CEO of DHCRC.
According to the DHCRC, the initiative will benefit about 700,000 Australians over the age of 65 who have renal function difficulties, as well as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It was said that seven out of ten hospitalisations for chronic kidney disease occur among older Australians, whereas one out of every five indigenous Australians had symptoms of the condition.
According to Bhavini Patel, executive director of Medicines Management at NT Health, the study initiative would "ensure safer prescription and distribution of pharmaceuticals for persons living with kidney illness and lower the risk of medication-associated renal complications."
THE MAJOR TREND
The DHCRC launched a $2.1 million research initiative last month to develop clinical decision support tools in rural and urban hospital settings throughout the nation. The three-year initiative seeks to improve the compatibility of decision assistance systems with their users. To do this, Alcidion's Miya Precision system will be used to identify priority areas where decision support tools may offer value.
In addition, in September, the research business announced a collaboration with UniSA and SA Health to develop a digital analytics platform that forecasts the probability of adverse occurrences in hospitals. According to reports, the technology will be utilised to create a visual application that would offer physicians and administrators real-time information about a hospital's risk exposure. The project's ultimate goal is to address patient safety concerns like ramping, suicide prevention, prescription errors, and falls.
