AutoPharmacist: Automated Medication Monitoring System in Primary Care

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**BACKGROUND**Every year over **40% of the UK population take 770 million regular medications** to manage and prevent disease. Their General Practitioner (GP) has the vast task of ensuring they are on the right medications, **with 15% of the population taking more than 5 medications regularly, and 25% having multiple long-term conditions.****PROBLEM**In an over-stretched health system, medications can be...\***Overused**: where unnecessary, potentially harmful medicines **should be** **stopped** because of side effects, interactions or ineffectiveness\***Underused**: where vital, disease-preventing medicines **should be** **started**Both have health consequences and cost implications for the NHS that are entirely avoidable.**CURRENT PRACTICE**Doctors/Pharmacists are expected to ...1. look through large volumes of medical data, with information 'hidden' in the free-text notes2.Collect additional information from patients3.Maintain up-to-date knowledge of ever-changing clinical guidelines for each medicine and disease4.Identify potential side effects and contra-indications5.Escalate therapy when the treatment is not working**NEED**Regular reviews for all patients, putting into practice already existing, clear, guidelines would identify these errors with **continuous, clinical, decisions individualised to each patient**.The **potential benefits of improved care** are enormous, an estimated **£2.5 billion per year to the NHS** across the UK.The **NHS lacks capacity** to do this safely due to:\*Critical staffing shortages exacerbated by COVID-19\*Requirements to repeat the whole process for each person, for every change in health data, regularly throughout the year to capture any safety issues quickly**SOLUTION**This **_"Auto-Pharmacist"_** will continuously, automatically extract and rationalise multiple data sources including existing patient EHR records against up-to-date clinical guidelines, organising automated patient questionnaires, flag potential adverse side effects and further testing where required. This solution is an **opportunity to deliver population health delivered efficiently and effectively** whilst reducing medication-related harms.