You may have seen the launch of an evaluation of the Medicines Optimisation Dashboard produced by NHS England in yesterdays CCG Bulletin.

We would appreciate you taking the time to both complete the survey and also forward information about the survey to colleagues who would like to share their views too.

From the CCG Bulletin:

Medicines Optimisation: Have your say

Building on the principles of medicines optimisation, and developed in collaboration with CCGs, trusts and the pharmaceutical industry, NHS England launched the medicines optimisation dashboard on 12 June.

This prototype dashboard brings together a range of medicines-related data in a way never done before. NHS England hopes that it will help CCGs explore how well their local populations are supported to optimise medicines use.

NHS England would like to explore how the dashboard is being used locally and use this evaluation to shape future versions of the dashboard. Please complete this short survey to have your say. 

Thank you for your time,

Keele Centre for Medicines Optimisation

New Medicines Optimisation Lead: Jonathan Underhill

The Keele Centre for Medicines Optimisation within the School of Pharmacy is pleased to announce the appointment of Jonathan Underhill as Medicines Optimisation Lead. Jonathan will be working 2 days a week while continuing his role as Associate Director Medicines Evidence within the NICE Medicines and Prescribing Centre. This appointment strengthens the excellent working relationship between Keele and NICE and provides an opportunity to enhance the support the Centre offers to its customers.

Jonathan is a pharmacist who has worked for over 15 years in prescribing support and was instrumental in developing the highly successful therapeutic educational programme of the former National Prescribing Centre. He said “implementing National guidance at a local level remains a huge challenge for prescribing teams within CCGs and trusts. The networks to support this have been eroded in many areas and there is a real need for high quality educational support for prescribing teams. We know from our work on evidence-informed decision making what helps implement evidence into practice, but we need to develop interventions that help people put that into practice. We found at NPC that sharing good ideas and collaborating with others is key to producing demonstrable results.”

Prof Steve Chapman who is Deputy Head of the School of Pharmacy / Head of Medicines Optimisation & Enterprise said “supporting people to deliver the medicines optimisation challenges around poor adherence, medicines related hospital admissions, medication errors across primary and secondary care and in care homes, as well as the level of medicines waste is a key objective of the Centre. Jonathan and I have a shared vision around how we can help prescribing teams meet these challenges and deliver the care that their patients deserve. We will review our business plan in consultation with our stakeholders to ensure the service we offer meets their needs and is scalable nationally and globally.”

Dr Paul Chrisp, Programme Director at the NICE Medicines and Prescribing Centre said “I am delighted to support Jonathan’s academic placement at Keele. This gives NICE and Keele an excellent opportunity to collaborate on our shared goals around Medicines Optimisation and implementation of best practice.”

About the Keele Centre for Medicines Optimisation

Keele Centre for Medicines Optimisation is a not-for-profit organisation based at Keele University in the School of Pharmacy, providing tailored, cost-effective, prescribing support solutions to the NHS.

With nearly 20 years experience in delivering medicines management solutions and optimising medicines use, our services include:

• Prescribing data analysis (primary and secondary care)
• Quality Outcome Framework achievement data
• Secondary care outpatient and inpatient episode statistics
• Clinical evaluation (critical appraisal) services
• Medicines optimisation support materials 
• Medicines optimisation strategic action planning
• Mapping and spatial analysis of health related data sets

Working with GPs, commissioners and local medicines management teams, we offer a wide range of medicines management services, from user-friendly, affordable, prescribing summaries for an individual practice right through to a comprehensive service, providing comparative prescribing data and action planning for a cluster of healthcare providers.

"Our aim is to encourage high-quality, evidence-based prescribing, to achieve the best care for patients. We pride ourselves on providing a responsive service that reflects current, key policy drivers, such as QIPP."

We work alongside GPs, CCGs,and hospital trusts and believe that outsourcing prescribing support activities to Keele offers healthcare providers a practical, cost-effective and, importantly, flexible option, as medicines management services are reconfigured.

Examples of our work are available on this site (take a look at the "Open Access Materials" area) and we'd also recommend reading the feedback from our existing customers