Introduction of electronic medication management systems did not impact upon deprescribing

Australian researchers have recently published a study that sought todetermine the effect of introducing an electronic medication management system (EMMS) upon deprescribing practice, examining admission & discharge drugs prescribed to patients admitted to an Australian post-acute hospital before and after the introduction of an EMMS. Data for 121 people (before EMMS) and 107 people (after EMMS introduction) were analysed. Compared with what was observed at the time of admission, at discharge patients were prescribed fewer medications (mean reduction pre-EMMS = 2.9, P < .001, post-EMMS = 2.6, P < .001), fewer Potentially Inappropriate Medications (mean reduction pre-EMMS = 0.4, P < .001, post-EMMS = 0.6, P < .001) and had lower Drug Burden Index (mean reduction pre-EMMS = 0.1, P < .001, post-EMMS = 0.2, P < .001). Intererestingly, the introduction of the EMMS did not results in a greater degree of reduction in these measures, but importantly did not compromise deprescribing either. See the full paper here.