Spotlight on Safety

Experts Stress Importance of Deprescribing in Older Patients, Monitoring Programs to Reduce Opioid Misuse at Houston Medication Safety Symposium

April 29 — Focused on the theme of "Improving Care with Deprescribing and Drug Monitoring Programs," the 2019 Houston Medication Safety Symposium April 26 shed new light on the challenges and opportunities in reducing the medication burden in the older adult/geriatric patient population as well as strategies for reversing course on the opioid epidemic.

The symposium brought together a diverse group of researchers, healthcare practitioners, students, residents, and postdoctoral fellows, with continuing education credits provided for dental, pharmacy, medical, and nursing professionals.   

The event featured plenary sesssions presentations by international and Texas-based experts and researchers: Emily Reeve, BPharm(Hons), Ph.D., University of South Australia; Cara Tannenbaum, M.D., MSc., Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Canadian Deprescribing Network and Université de Montréal; Allison Vordenbaumen Benz, R.Ph., M.S., Texas State Board of Pharmacy; and Michael Sprintz, D.O., FASAM, Cellarian, Inc. and Sprintz Center for Pain and Recovery

Among the four podium and 20 poster presentations, the following were recognized with Best Presentation awards: 

Among the 20 submitted poster presentations, the recipients of the Best Poster awards were UHCOP Pharm.D. student Kelvin Lu for "Medication Adherence of Oral Endocrine Therapy in Breast Cancer Patients in a Large Academic Medical Center" and UHCOP Pharmaceutical Health Outcomes and Policy (PHOP) Ph.D. candidate Jagadesh Earla, Pharm.D., MBA, for "Factors Associated With Prescribing of Oral Disease Modifying Agents In Multiple Sclerosis."

Among the four oral presentations, "Comparison of Data Mining Methods for Detection of Adverse Events Associated with Use of Herceptin" by University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston graduate student Effie Polychronopolou and "Anticholinergic Exposure and Cognitive Decline Among Older Nursing Home Residents With Depression" by UHCOP PHOP Ph.D. alumna Satabdi Chatterjee were recognized with Best Podium Presentation awards.

All of the abstracts submitted for the symposium will be published in an upcoming special edition of the peer-reviewed journal Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy (Elsevier). 

The symposium was co-hosted by UHCOP's Department of Pharmaceutical Health Outcomes and Policy and the UTHealth McGovern Medical School. Sponsorship for the symposium was provided by the Phyllis Gough Huffington Endowed Lectureship, UTHealth Consortium on Aging and The PREMIER Center at UHCOP.