A team of researchers, led by Dr Jennifer Stevenson, from the School of Cancer & Pharmaceutical Sciences have been shortlisted for the prestigious national Health Service Journal Patient Safety Awards for the PRIME Study. Professor Graham Davies from the School of Cancer & Pharmaceutical Sciences and Dr Rebekah Schiff from the Department of Ageing & Health at Guy's and St Thomas' played a critical role in the collaborative effort across King's Health Partners, along with Brighton and Sussex Medical School. Together, they are finalists in the ‘Improving Safety in Medicines Management Initiative’ category.

All finalists will need to submit a virtual presentation by July 31 and the winner is then announced in November 2020. The Patient Safety Awards help to drive improvements in culture and quality across the NHS by ‘celebrating the teams and the people putting safety first'.

Jennifer specialises in the optimisation of medicines in older adults. Having worked at Guys & St Thomas’ Hospital and experienced the intermediate care setting, she became aware of just how vulnerable some older adults were to the harmful effects of medicine, especially after an acute episode of care. What was not so apparent, she noted, was which patients would experience medication-related harm (MRH).

The research for which they were shortlisted aims to identify which older patients are most likely to experience harm from their medicines after an admission to hospital. Those who are a greater risk of harm from their medicines can then be prioritised, and resources and interventions can be targeted at this group.

The recently published papers examine the incidence and cost of MRH, as well as looking at ways to predict and ultimately avoid this; Jennifer’s research is insightful for clinicians and researchers alike. Being shortlisted for the UK-wide award will no doubt go some way in attracting the recognition this research deserves.

 

Publications

• Incidence and cost
• Prediction model