THe MeDICINes OPTIMIsATION INNOvATION
CeNTRe IN ANTRIM MAy HAve ReCeNTLy
CeLeBRATeD ITs FIFTH ANNIveRsARy BuT, As PIF sHOWs, MOIC’s FOCus Is veRy MuCH ON eveNTs TODAy…
Professor Mike Scott hosts the European Union Regions Driving Medicine Safety Event.
MOIC leads the way W
hen it was established in October 2015, the Medicines Optimisation
Innovation Centre (MOIC) in Antrim, stated its desire to not only improve patient care on medicines use, but to engage with partners across europe and throughout the world to engage with professionals on best practice; bringing this learning back to Northern Ireland.
Over the last five years, MOIC has certainly delivered on its promise. Today, the centre is leading the way in pharmacy in europe and is recognised as a driving force both in europe and globally in medicines optimisation, forming strategic partnerships within health and medicine.
Recently, for example, MOIC signed a Memorandum of understanding with the Polish society of Clinical Pharmacy in order to share learning and drive pharmacy services throughout europe.
MOIC’s Director, Professor Mike scott, also recently hosted the first european union Regions Driving Medicine safety event, which
6 - PHARMACy IN FOCus
showcased examples from a range of eu partners of how Northern Ireland is co-operating and working cohesively throughout europe to deliver safer and more effective medicines use.
MOIC also recently announced a new partnership with The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) to deliver ‘triple win’ benefits to patients, Northern Ireland’s Health and social Care (HsC) and the economy.
The organisations will start with the bold aim of eradicating Hepatitis C in Northern Ireland. At present, the incidence of Hepatitis C is on the rise in Northern Ireland, with cases increasing by 53 per cent in 2019 against the previous ten-year average.
‘We have a long-standing positive relationship with the ABPI and look forward to the benefits that our new partnership will bring,’ says Professor scott. ‘I’m delighted that tackling Hepatitis C will be one of our first goals. In 2016, the uk signed up to the World Health Organization Global Health sector strategy on viral Hepatitis, which commits participating countries to eliminate
the disease as a major public health threat by 2030. We believe our new partnership with the ABPI will help create the conditions for NI to exceed that target.’
While MOIC’s focus has always been on improving medicines safety, however, their most important, recent focus has been on the response to COvID-19: the greatest health challenge the world has faced since the spanish Flu in 1918. In september, MOIC compiled a report entitled ‘Rapid review of pharmacy services changed in response to COvID-19 in Northern Ireland’.
The review captured the rapid changes to pharmacy services that were implemented in the HsC service in Northern Ireland during the first wave of the COvID-19 pandemic between March and May 2020, and provided a powerful endorsement of the commitment and professionalism shown by pharmacists and pharmacy teams working in the community, GP surgeries and hospitals.
‘The rapid changes,’ says Professor scott, ‘were introduced at a time
when pharmacy services were already responding to significant challenges relating to medicines optimisation. In Northern Ireland, evidence has shown that interventions by the pharmacy team can reduce medicines administration errors from 8.3 per cent to 1.3 per cent and avoid costs of up to £825 per patient. In addition, Northern Ireland are supporting World Health Organization in their third Global Health Challenge to reduce avoidable Medication Related Harm by 50 per cent by 2023.’
The review examined what had worked well during the first surge and what could be improved, in order to inform practice and policies going forward. As such, the aims of the rapid review were to: • Identify changes to pharmacy service delivery which were made to improve safety, efficiency or effectiveness during the first COvID-19 wave
• Make specific recommendations for actions needed prior to future waves
• To inform priorities for the rebuilding of pharmacy services aligned to the HsC rebuilding programme.
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