Medicines Optimisation: The Safe and Effective Use of Medicines to Enable the Best Possible Outcomes

Excerpt

Striving towards a person-centred service through joint working across health and social care and cross-sector working (for example with commercial organisations) achieves the best possible outcomes for the person. This incorporates a patient's values and preferences and minimises harm, supporting effective medicines optimisation. This guideline reviews the evidence available to support health and social care practitioners, and health and social care organisations, in considering the systems and processes required to ensure safe and effective medicines optimisation.

In this guideline, the term ‘medicines’ covers all healthcare treatments, such as oral medicines, topical medicines, inhaled products, injections, wound care products, appliances and vaccines. The guideline will assume that prescribers will use a medicine's summary of product characteristics to inform decisions made with individual patients.