Navigating polypharmacy in older adults

Join us for this 40-minute presentation and 10-minute Q&A session on the topic of Navigating polypharmacy in older adults.

This webinar will provide essential insights into polypharmacy, exploring the important issue of medication-related harms that can arise from complex medication regimens, including adverse drug reactions, drug interactions, and increased healthcare costs.

Dr Amy Page will provide practical strategies for identifying, preventing, and managing polypharmacy and its associated risks. We'll discuss approaches like medication reviews, deprescribing, and effective communication with patients and other healthcare professionals. This session is designed for healthcare providers looking to enhance their skills in optimizing medication management and improving patient safety.

Learning Objetives:

• What is polypharmacy? Definitions and epidemiology
• Recognising medication related harms (e.g. falls, peripheral oedema, impaired wound healing)
• Practical strategies for identifying medication related risks and opportunities to optimise medication use

The Presenter:

Dr Amy Page

Dr Amy Page is a consultant pharmacist and qualified biostatistician. Her vision is to reduce medicines-related harm while balancing symptom control to align with individualised treatment goals for older people to improve well-being. She undertakes knowledge creation and translation through implementation, practitioner development, communication and media, engagement with professional bodies and policy for sustained impact on pharmacy practice.

She has received over $5.5 million in funding and published over 150 articles including more than 100 peer reviewed papers. She has presented on medicine safety and the quality use of medicines for older people nationally and internationally. Her research is frequently profiled in the professional and lay media.

She has worked in patient-facing roles across many settings including community, hospital, medication reviews, Aboriginal community-controlled health service and general practice. She was one of the first Australian pharmacists to work within a general practice to optimise medicines use among people with multimorbidty and polypharmacy. She was the inaugural Lead Pharmacist Rehabilitation Aged and Community Care Services at Alfred Health leading pharmacy services at the subacute campus, where she held a senior management position within Alfred Health's pharmacy team for four years. She continues to work in community pharmacy and undertake medication reviews.

Dr Page has been recognised by the Australian Journal of Pharmacy as one of the most influential people in pharmacy since 2017, most recently in December 2022. She was honoured to receive the 2022 Vice Chancellor's Early Career Researcher award and the 2023 School Research Impact and Innovation award. She is short listed for the 2024 Research Australia's Health Service Research award. She was awarded the PSA Young Pharmacist of the Year in 2015 and the Pharmacist of the Year in 2024.

Event Details

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