MY COMRADE PLUS
MY COMRADE PLUS: A pilot cluster Randomised Controlled Trial, for patients with multimorbidity, of the MultimorbiditY COllaborative Medication Review And DEcision Making intervention (MY COMRADE), practice based pharmacists (PBP’s) or PBP’s plus an adaptation of MY COMRADE (Host Organisation – NUI Galway)
Multimorbidity is the term used when a person has more than one long-term medical condition. In general practice, patients are more likely to have multimorbidity than a single condition. How patients are treated and the evidence used to draw up guidelines for doctors are usually based on a single condition, for example, research is conducted on patients with diabetes and guidelines are developed for managing patients with diabetes. However, for patients with multimorbidity, there are many challenges, one of which is the management of multiple medications.
Internationally, people are looking for new approaches to prescribing for patients with multimorbidity, including ways to encourage patients to be more involved in managing their own condition.
The aim of this health research is to test one new such approach north and south of the border in Ireland.
This health research will investigate if the MY COMRADE approach will lead to better patient care, both in the Republic of Ireland (RoI), where there are no pharmacists in General Practitioner (GP) practices and in Northern Ireland (NI), where there are pharmacists in GP practices. Before testing MY COMRADE in a large scale trial, which would take a lot of time and money, this pilot study is required to see if it is possible to use the MY COMRADE approach in practices and to see if GPs and the PBPs are willing to use this approach.
Once we know that it is possible to do this study and that practice staff are willing to use the MY COMRADE approach, a larger trial can be undertaken to find out for sure if MY COMRADE can make things better for patients.
Lead Contact: Professor Andrew Murphy, National University of Ireland Galway