Medication review and reconciliation in older adults

• DOI: 10.1007/s41999-021-00449-9
• Publication Date: 2021-02-14T13:47:08Z
• Authors: Jean-Baptiste Beu...; Sylvia Pelayo; Laurine Robert; Stefanie Thevelin; Sophie Marien; Olivia Dalleur
• Keywords: Medication review; Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions; [SDV]Life Sciences [q-bio]; Inappropriate Prescribing; Drug Prescriptions; 3. Good health; Patient perspective; 03 medical and health sciences; Medication Reconciliation; 0302 clinical medicine; Geriatrics; Polypharmacy; Medication reconciliation; Humans; Older people; CDSS; Aged

Older people are frequently exposed to polypharmacy, inappropriate prescribing, and adverse drug events. Two clinical processes can help geriatricians to optimize and increase the safety of drug prescriptions for older adults: medication reconciliation and medication review. Medication reconciliation provides the best possible medication history and identifies and resolves discrepancies in drug prescriptions. During the medication review, the best possible medication history is crosschecked against other data, including morbidities, patient's preferences, or geriatric syndromes, to produce a personalized medication strategy. Alignment of treatment recommendations with patient preferences and goals through shared decision-making is particularly important in medication review. Medication reconciliation and medication review have proven to be effective, but their broad implementation remains difficult. Indeed, these procedures are time-consuming and require specific skills, coordination between different healthcare professionals, organizations and dedicated means. The involvement of geriatricians therefore remains essential for the successful implementation of medication reconciliation and medication review in geriatric settings and among frail older people.