UBCSA awards grant for medication safety research

Among those selected was The Deprescribing Network of Western New York for Successful Aging, a study that aims to advance research collaborations among UB faculty with community-based partners to solve medication safety challenges facing older adults.

Medication harm is a major challenge for frail elders. Potentially inappropriate medications harm older adults, yet literature shows they are used at very high rates.

The Deprescribing Research Network will translate known medication safety evidence into practice for frail elders through system‐based interventions that address fragmentation through a variety of innovative strategies, such as integrating pharmacist consultation into primary care, patient/caregiver hard stop tools, and implementing electronic systems to disseminate patient‐specific information across the system to deprescribe harmful drugs.

Several UB School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences faculty and alumni are involved in the project:

• Robert G. Wahler Jr., PharmD ’00, clinical assistant professor, pharmacy practice
• Scott V. Monte, PharmD ’06, clinical assistant professor, pharmacy practice
• David M. Jacobs, PharmD ’11, assistant professor, pharmacy practice
• Christopher Daly, PharmD/MBA ’10, clinical assistant professor, pharmacy practice
• Esra Mustafa, PharmD ‘15
• Collin Clark, PharmD ’17

Other University at Buffalo faculty involved in the project are Ranjit Singh, MD, MBA, Susan LaValley, MS, MLS, MA, PhD, and Andrew Baumgartner BS, BA, CNMT.

UBCSA’s Seeds for Innovation in Successful Aging (SISA) program funds innovative, interdisciplinary preliminary research projects that have the potential to transform the way we think about aging and the practice and policy choices we make with and about older individuals and populations.