Dissertation: Kjell H. Halvorsen
Fellow pharmacist and our dear collegue Kjell H. Halvorsen, defended his thesis "Drug prescribing quality for older patients. Explicit indicators and multidisciplinary medication reviews" on 16th of March.
Hovedinnhold
The doctoral education is funded by Centre for Pharmacy, and the aim of the thesis was to investigate and improve the quality of drug treatment of both community-dwelling and institusionalised elderly patients.
Drug treatment of elderly patients is a challenge. They have more diseases than younger patients, and are often prescribed multiple drugs simultaneously. At the same time, elderly patients are more frail, and hence will not tolerate all drugs equally well. This makes it important to have methods that ensure high quality of both prescribing and follow-up of these patients.
The thesis shows that both the community-dwelling and institutionalised elderly are in risk of several drug-related problems (DRPs), and that the care calls for improvement. The candidate points out that a closer collaboration between physicians and pharmacists could be a way to prevent DRPs.
Congratulations!
