Supporting, encouraging and empowering clinical pharmacists and pharmacy technicians working in primary care practice in the Midlands


COPD DECISION SUPPORT TOOL
UK healthcare professionals now have free online access to a new Decision Support Tool − https://www.copd-dst.org/ − that assists practitioners in the diagnosis and management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in people aged 16 & older.
Developed by Prescribing Decision Support at Keele University’s Centre for Medicines Optimisation, with the support of the Midlands Practice Pharmacy Network, the tool provides individualised prescribing recommendations based on the NICE guideline chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in over 16s: diagnosis and management NG115 (last updated July 2019) and, in particular the NICE visual summary covering non-pharmacological management and the use of inhaled therapies.
The tool is intended to support clinical decision-making and prescribing and not replace the healthcare professional’s clinical judgement. The healthcare professional user of the tool should use their own clinical judgement when considering and/ or acting upon the prompts, alerts, notes and recommendations arising from using the tool and they are responsible for checking a drug’s summary of product characteristics to inform decisions made with individual patients.
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The development of the Tool and its delivery is sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline. GlaxoSmithKline was involved in scoping for the Toolkit and has reviewed the Toolkit for compliance with the ABPI Code.
ASTHMA & COPD REVIEW TOOLKIT
The Asthma and COPD Audit and Review Toolkit is a simple resource designed to support practitioners in identifying those patients who will most benefit from a review without contributing unduly to practice workload burden.
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Developed in partnership between the Midlands Practice Pharmacy Network and Prescribing Decision Support Ltd at Keele University, the Toolkit incorporates a search report and protocol alerts to identify asthma and COPD patients at risk of unplanned admissions and/or displaying signs of poor disease control. The patient identification criteria used are consistent with many of the risk factors highlighted by the National Review of Asthma Deaths (NRAD) and National COPD Audit Programme.
The Toolkit is FREE TO USE and available to download at https://asthmacopdtoolkit.org/.
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The Toolkit is currently available for EMIS Web and SystmOne. (Includes installation guides.) ​
The development of the Toolkit and its delivery is sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline. GlaxoSmithKline was involved in scoping for the Toolkit and has reviewed the Toolkit for compliance with the ABPI Code.
WHAT WE DO
HOW TO JOIN
COMMITTEE, CONSTITUTION & SPONSORSHIP
COMMITTEE
Chair, Bharat Patel, Clinical Pharmacist, Rushall Medical Centre
Vice-Chair, Hemant Patel, Clinical Pharmacist, Umbrella Group
The MPPN Committee comprises 7 members: a Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary and professional leads who take responsibility for areas such as training, service evaluation and membership. We meet every two months.
All members are invited to submit agenda items for discussion and we welcome approaches from any member who wishes to join the Committee.
CONSTITUTION
SPONSORSHIP
The MPPN welcomes appropriate sponsorship and joint working opportunities with commercial organisations such as pharmaceutical companies.
We will work with commercial organisations where the proposed relationship and/or activity being supported:
is consistent with the our professional aims and our principles regarding integrity, independence and transparency
has been approved in advance in accordance with the MPPN's internal assessment processes
To date, we have received support from several pharmaceutical companies who have had exhibition stand space at our training workshops. This enables us to provide training free-of-charge to our members. None of the companies have had any input into the content of the programmes; and have had no involvement in choosing, briefing or paying the speakers.