PCNE Medication Review Symposium 2011 (Dublin)

Introduction

This second Medication Review symposium was the fourth official meeting of the PCNE working group.

Medication review (Drug Use Review, DUR) is a process that is part of the quality assurance of medication therapy (drug therapy). A retrospective review does not focus on drug-use alone, but on prescribing medicines and administration/actual use. The aim of the review is identifying problems or potential problems, or medication errors, in view of the desired outcomes. There are several published methods coupled with criteria (implicit & explicit) but it is still unclear how a review should be conducted, and what methods are currently being studied in practice. The different criteria often need an adaptation to national customs and formularies. The focus of the working group is retrospective medication review.

Prof. Dr. Kurt Hersberger, Switzerland