The Future of Medication Management

No-one could foresee how this policy goal could be eclipsed by a reset of aged care regulation and the largest pandemic in a generation. Despite this there has been progress to the original goal which BESTMED has been proud to support. Its software connecting aged care, pharmacies and doctors to a single medication record demonstrates how consumers benefit from clinicians sharing, live connected medication data. At the BESTMED conference in March 2024, Rameez Hassan from Regis shared how the post-implementation of BESTMED a 63% reduction in medication incidents was recorded and savings of 114 minutes a day were made analysing the workflows.

But BESTMED is not sitting back, more is needed to enable Australia to reach the targets set in 2018.  At the ‘Beyond the Chart’ conference, Phil Offer, CEO outlined the next priorities for the software.

Consumer and Family

A key group missing out on connecting to the live medication record is the consumer and their loved ones. Our new software BESTConnect addresses this as it connects families and consumers to view medication changes. The software alerts them when a new medication has commenced, has ceased or has been edited. The inbuilt medication resources provide credible evidence-based information to help answer questions and fears of the unknown. This saves time for the facility in sending out this information whilst ensuring the family feel informed and supported.

The new service has been rolled out for initial testing with sites as part of a research partnership led by Macquarie University. Their feedback is being built into the general release version expected later this year.  If you would like to be part of the next waves of testing, reach out to the BESTMED relationship management team.

Home Care

Predictions from the Aged Care Task Force Report, point to the number of aged Australians accessing home care in the next 10 years to increase to over 1.5 million with many of these Australians experiencing very complex medication needs.

In fact, research into home care package recipients in Australia noted significant medication issues. Over 52% of home care recipients were on an antibiotic, 29% were highly sedated and 13.7% were chronic opioid users. The study also noted over 26% of Home care package recipients presented to ED within 30 days and 11.7% were hospitalised from a fall. Yet despite this, only 3% of the study participants had received a medication review.

BESTMED is addressing this with its new Home Care software to provide visibility on the medications, monitor adherence, connect to the pharmacy and enable carer-initiated escalations. It specifically fits the workflows of Home Care providers and integrates with their current care provider systems.  To join the pilot phase group contact the BESTMED relationship management team.

BESTMED Labs

Finally, our BESTMED Labs are looking at how we can apply other available technology to continue improving safety, such as AI visual recognition technology. This technology is already used by many of our pharmacy partners for automated packing. The AI technology identifies the correct pills in the sachet and along with automated packing robots reduces the error rate to under 1 in a million.

Once the medication sachet leaves the pharmacy we’ve run trials on how camera technology can be used to monitor adherence in the home. It can identify when the sachet is opened and the pills taken by the consumer. The next stage of testing is focused on consumer acceptance and the benefits compared to alternative technologies.

The future

With the clear goal set for medication safety, BESTMED strongly believes that clinicians connected by intelligent, intuitive software will continue to play a major role in reducing avoidable errors.

It’s not a case of technology for its own sake but technology that delivers real results for consumers and their families, whether in their homes or residential care.

Thanks for your continued support and feedback.