WHAT QUELYPHARM AIMS TO DO?

The actual level of information/education among elderly regarding medications and their correct use is often not satisfying.  A territorial network of coordination of education to the elderly citizens is missing, which could allow sharing of accessible and correct information.

Elderly should be educated and well-informed about health in order to maintain a perfect functionality of their body and to adopt a healthy lifestyle, coordinating every intervention on the diet, complementary food assumption, physical and mental activity as the best as possible.

Health education is a concept directly linked to health promotion in both clinical and educational preparation field. In fact, health promotion and wellness are a great responsibility, particularly for all health care providers who work with elderly people, although considering that wellbeing should not be regarded as a concept specifically relevant to younger individuals, but it is extensible to all the categories of the population.

As part of Department of Drug Science and Technology, we daily take care of medication and good practices of health education, teaching our students, pharmacists and researchers of the future, writing research project, conducting studies from the simulation of the biologically active molecule in silico to the most advanced nanotechnological formulation.

Our profession of drug experts aims to the objective of discovering, improving and knowing better the medication besides their different aspects: mechanism of action, efficacy and adverse effects.

Through our work we indagate the intervention of the drug on different systems that dominate the physiology of the human body, studying the impact exercised by the medication in different ages of men and women’ life.

In recent years, we consolidated our specialized knowledge and we strongly acknowledged that it is important to optimize the drug use in elderly people to achieve a concrete innovation in pharmaceutical care, preserving the primary objective to guarantee the Quality of Life of the Elderly.

According to this proposition, some colleagues of DSTF of the university of Turin have composed a work group that share the project of Qualification of the polytherapy of the elderly.

This project, Qualification of Elderly Polypharmacy – QuElyPharm –, has been accepted by Research European Commission – EIP on AHA – AG A1: Prescription and Adherence to Medical Plans,  and realizes itself through the analysis of polytherapies of +65 aged subject and the concomitant survey of therapeutic criticalities of drugs in use.

In particular, QuElyPharm realizes the effort, that is the commitment of the Department of Drug Science and Technology (DSTF) of University of Turin to create an information network for citizens and health care professionals to work aiming at improving the quality of therapies.

Results and reflections emerging from this work can involve any therapy of the elderly, but also can be useful for health care professionals who deal with elderly polytherapies at the same time.