Geriatric Medication Safety Symposium

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ABSTRACT Medication-related morbidity and mortality are a significant health concern in older adults, who are highly susceptible to medication-related problems. Safe medication use practices require coordinated efforts by providers and patients in the medication use process. Medication-related problems in older adults range from prescribing of high-risk medications to misuse of prescribed medications by older adults. Reducing medication errors and improving medication safety are major national priorities. Therefore, our objective is to host the Geriatric Medication Safety Symposium in the largest medical complex in the world, the Texas Medical Center (TMC), annually to disseminate and implement the evidence-based approaches for medication safety in older adults to improve the quality of geriatric care. The University of Houston College of Pharmacy in collaboration with the University of Texas McGovern Medical School organized the Houston Medication Safety Symposium for the past three years focusing on various aspects of medication safety issues such high-risk medications, prescribing cascades, and deprescribing with presentations from nationally recognized experts. An average of 151 diverse health professions participated in the symposium each year to enrich their practice and research on medication safety. In addition, the symposium included research podiums and posters that were published in a peer-reviewed journal. We are requesting five years of funding to host the Geriatric Medication Safety Symposium to continue our successful efforts to disseminate critical medication safety issues with respect to practice, research, and policy. This annual symposium will: (i) Provide an excellent interprofessional educational forum for practitioners and researchers to discuss evidence-based medication safety approaches in older adults; (ii) Increase collaborations for best practices in patient care and medication safety research; and (iii) Disseminate the knowledge and findings from the symposium nationally through webinars and publications. The proposal includes monthly planning committee meetings from representatives of selected TMC institutions to plan and organize the two-day symposium in the TMC, with a reach of over 20,000 healthcare professionals. The symposium includes four plenary sessions, podium and poster sessions, and practice/research workshops, with web-based content delivery and integration of virtual content over five years to allow for greater reach. The areas of focus for the upcoming symposiums include off-label drug use during the COVID-19 pandemic, drug burden, safer opioid use, adverse drug events, significant drug interactions, drug safety during transitions of care, and medication safety in inpatient care. The target audience includes physicians, nurses, pharmacists, students, residents, fellows, researchers, and others. Educational and media tools will be created in addition to publishing the proceedings in the Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy journal. Overall, the Geriatric Medication Safety Symposium will provide a unique interprofessional educational and research forum for practitioners and researchers to make medication practices safer for older adults in the TMC and beyond.