QUALITY Use of Medicines (QUM) is fundamental to combatting medication-related harm and improving patients' health literacy, Consumer Health Forum (CHF) CEO, Leanne Wells, believes.
In a blog posted on the CHF's website, Wells noted that the benefits of medications such as opioids, antimicrobials and antipsychotics were overshadowed by the harms associated with them.
Wells said that while QUM can reduce harms and deaths flowing from medication misuse, "positive measures can include closing the chasm people have to cross as they transition between care settings".
"We are striving for higher levels of consumer medication literacy -- giving consumers information and the agency to ask questions, understand their consumer medicine information (CMI) and feel confident proactively to seek medication reviews," she said.
"On a separate but associated front, we are also working on 'Five Questions to Ask your Pharmacist', borrowing from the Five Questions format of the Choosing Wisely program (PD 16 Mar).
"We need to increase consumers' capacity to manage and feel in control of their health care, including with QUM.
"That's a challenge when we know that significant numbers of Australians appear to lack the capacity to access, understand, appraise and use crucial information to make health-related decisions."
Wells added that supporting patient-centred models would advance QUM.
"Having non-prescribing pharmacists in general practice represents a really powerful development.
"We have the workforce in pharmacists who can work with prescribers to use localised data to look at prescribing patterns, medication reviews, and most importantly work with the GPs to educate and better equip consumers."
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