Tackling polypharmacy : a multi-source decision support system

Abstract

Managing the use of multiple medicines, also known as polypharmacy, is a challenge for physicians, pharmacists and patients alike, and is a particular concern for patients with multiple chronic conditions (aka multimorbidity). Patients with multimorbidity are often required to take a considerable number of medications for their different ongoing conditions, and managing/revising these medications effectively is a challenge. There is a need to periodically rearrange drugs taking into account patient’s preferences and avoiding adverse drug reactions. We present an incremental, constraint solver based framework for a clinical decision support system that makes it possible to check drug prescriptions using information from multiple sources, including a constraint database and patient records. We illustrate how it can be used to manage clinical conditions while reducing polypharmacy problems and undesired side effects in a patient-centric approach.