TaperMD Deprescribing Study Protocol Released

Toronto, Canada, December 17, 2021 — TaperMD, maker of a cutting-edge online medication review platform, announced the publication of the Team Approach to Polypharmacy Evaluation and Reduction: Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) in the BMC Trials journal. The article outlines the basis for formal evaluation of TaperMD’s platform in clinical trials to reduce polypharmacy and improve health outcomes.

“In our early research, we worked with patients to develop the process that they felt was most likely to be successful, valuing them as experts in their care, and worked with pharmacists and prescribers to ensure the seamless integration with their daily workflow,” said Dr. Dee Mangin, TaperMD Chief Medical Officer and Professor of Family Medicine at McMaster University.  “We are testing methods that can scale and translate into real-world clinical practice. Our aim in testing this intervention is to lay the foundation for this model to be incorporated and become a part of routine preventive care in older adults.”

The study will track, among other things, the number of medications per patient, an analysis of quality-adjusted life years and program costs, and qualitative feedback from patients and clinicians. Complete study results are expected in 2022.

About The TAPER system

The TaperMD platform is being used to capture and integrate the following into an operationalized structured clinical pathway:

  1. Patient (or family) priorities & preferences for treatment.
  2. Patient medications (prescription, over the counter & herbals).
  3. Patient characteristics relevant to medications, including vitals, labs, conditions, fall history.
  4. Evidence-based screens for reducing unhelpful medication burden are customized to individual patients’ medications and specific health circumstances. This enables the clinician to quickly assess individual and cumulative medication burdens.
  5. Recommendations by drug class around tapering approaches, potential medication withdrawal effects, and suggested monitoring parameters and time frames to support tapering and/or deprescribing.
  6. A shared record for all clinicians in the pathway to access, review, and comment about patient medications.

About TaperMD

TaperMD is the leader in software tools for healthcare teams to improve medication safety, reduce problematic polypharmacy, and optimize medications for older adults. TaperMD software is unique: it integrates cutting-edge evidence-based support with patient or family priorities for care into a collaborative, team-based platform for pharmacists, nurses, and doctors to perform medication reviews.

The software automatically makes the latest evidence and recommendations about each patient’s medications available to the care team. The evidence is summarized and presented visually in a way that enables the care team to quickly identify and troubleshoot issues and drill down into underlying evidence where required.

TaperMD’s unique innovative medication review tools were developed in conjunction with the Department of Family Medicine, McMaster University, and are being used for patient reviews for community-dwelling, long-term care, and post-acute care (LTPAC) sites around the world, in addition to several formal clinical trials. For LTPAC sites using PointClickCare, TaperMD offers an EHR-integrated version. For more information on TaperMD’s PointClickCare integration, click here.

Media Contact:

James Wood
james@tapermd.com
416-474-6329