Dr. Barbara Farrell of the Bruyère Research Institute in Ottawa has been awarded $50,000 to support her research project on “Mobilizing Community Pharmacists as Catalysts for Deprescribing.” Based at the Institute, Farrell and her team will work with community pharmacy practices and a national advisory group (with provider and private payer representation) to develop acceptable workflow strategies for deprescribing guideline use.

Research associates will work with each pharmacy to quantify opportunities for deprescribing, describe activities and processes associated with guideline use—including how long such activities take—and highlight enablers and barriers that pharmacists encounter. This project is expected to lay the foundation for a larger demonstration project examining reach, adoption and implementation of deprescribing strategies, and ultimately a randomized controlled trial of deprescribing interventions that explores patient and health system outcomes, including related cost savings.

In January 2020, the Canadian Pharmacists Journal published “Community pharmacists as catalysts for deprescribing: An exploratory study using quality improvement processes,” which pertains to this research project. Click here to access the article.

News article – “Deprescribing, within a pharmacist’s domain”