Medicines and prescribing
The Medicines and Prescribing research group at the Centre for Academic Primary Care (CAPC) is a small but rapidly expanding multidisciplinary team of researchers. We have broad interests covering a range of topics related to the rational and safe use of medicines in primary care.
Areas of interest include:
- polypharmacy
- deprescribing
- medicines optimisation
- pharmacoepidemiology.
Given the breadth of the subject, we have links to other CAPC research groups, such as those working on mental health and multimorbidity.
We also have active collaborations with researchers at the Universities of Cambridge, Nottingham, Oxford and Dundee, and support the provision of undergraduate teaching on pharmacology and therapeutics at Bristol Medical School.
Medicines and prescribing facts
Medications are the main therapeutic intervention offered by clinicians to improve health, with most prescribing occurring in primary care.
Over 1 billion items are dispensed annually in primary care in England alone, and prescribing accounts for the biggest proportion of non-staff expenditure by the NHS.
Over half of patients in their 70s are on at least four regular medications.
The team
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Charlotte Archer
Charlotte is a Senior Research Associate in Primary Care Mental Health. Her research uses multi/mixed methods to understand the diagnosis and management of anxiety and depression in primary care.
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Barbara Caddick
Barbara is a Senior Research Associate working across a range of primary care projects, including the IMPPP trial: ‘Improving Medicines Use for People with Polypharmacy in Primary Care’ and ‘Safety and Quality of online consulting and prescribing services’. She has a PhD in social and cultural history and is currently developing work exploring historical aspects of primary care
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Vincent Cheng
Vincent is a Senior Research Associate in Research Synthesis. He has conducted systematic reviews of interventions in a range of topics including alcohol use disorder, peripheral arterial disease and surgical site infection. He is determined to improve patient and public health by identifying, appraising and synthesising available evidence. Vincent is also keen to improve the systematic review process (e.g. ROB 2 Excel tool and automated snowballing searches), trial designs and data visualisation
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Shoba Dawson
Shoba is an Honorary member of the team and a Senior Research Associate with diverse experience within primary care research. She is currently leading a project investigating prescription medication sharing by primary care patients. Her research interests include medicines optimisation, patient safety, multimorbidity and systematic reviews.
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Polly Duncan
Polly is a GP and NIHR In-Practice Fellow interested in multimorbidity, polypharmacy and deprescribing. She and Prof Chris Salisbury developed and validated the 'Multimorbidity Treatment Burden Questionnaire' - a widely used tool. She has applied for a NIHR doctoral fellowship focused on the characteristics and unmet care needs of housebound patients.
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Hannah Family
Hannah is a Research Fellow and Chartered Psychologist. Her research has predominantly focussed on medicines use, medicines safety, the roles of pharmacists (particularly prescribing pharmacists) and the design and development of evidence based interventions in community pharmacy (e.g. opportunistic sexual and reproductive health advice for women prescribed opiate substitution therapy).
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Harriet Fisher
Harriet is a Research Fellow at Bristol Medical School
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Ioana Fodor
Ioana Fodor is a Senior Research Projects Manager (Primary Care Infections).
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Alice Malpass
Alice is a Research Fellow (Qualitative Research) at Bristol Medical School.
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Deborah McCahon
Debbie is a Research Fellow with longstanding and diverse research experience and expertise within a primary health care setting. Her research interests include medicines optimisation and users' experience of medication review.
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Jennifer Scott
Jennifer is a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Academic Primary Care (CAPC)
Current projects
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BRISMED Study - Improving the quality of medication reviews in general practice. McCahon D. (PI). Funder: National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
- Prescription medication sharing by primary care patients. Dawson S, McCahon D, Huntley A, Turner K. Funder. : Royal College of General Practitioners Scientific Foundation Board Annual Research Grant (2020-2022).
- IMPPP: Improving Medicines use in People with Polypharmacy in Primary Care. Payne RA, Salisbury C, Round J, Morris R, Jameson C, Dreischulte T, Guthrie B, Chew-Graham C. Funder: NIHR Health Services and Delivery Research (2018-2022)
- Investigating the relationship between continuity of care and patients' medication use. Tammes P, Salisbury C, Morris R, Payne R. Funder: NIHR School for Primary Care Research (June 2020-March 2021)
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Maximising wellbeing in everyday life with long-term conditions (MaxWELL). Mann C, Johnson R, Salisbury C, Barnes B, Horwood J, De Vocht F, McLeod H. Funder: RCF (2020-2021)
- Using linked primary care and viral surveillance data to develop risk stratification models to inform management of severe COVID19. Payne R, Kontopantelis E, Mant J, Denholm R, Cooper J, Forbes H, Herbert A, Tammes P. Funder SPCR (2020).
Completed projects
- Diagnosis and management of infectious disease in primary care during the COVID-19 lockdown: changes in antibacterial and antiviral use. Denholm R, Payne R, Hay A. Funder: EBI (2020)
- Safety and quality of online consulting and prescribing services. Payne R, McCahon D, Denholm R, Turner K, Dawson S, Watson M. Funder: RCF (2019-2020)
- What is the role of genetics in primary care? Payne R. Funder: NIHR Evidence Synthesis Working Group. Funder: NIHR School for Primary Care Research (2017-2020)
- GP perspectives on the utility of tool to effect deprescribing in clinical practice. Payne R, McCahon D, Abel G. Funder:RCF (2019)
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Patient experiences and perceptions of medication review in general practice. McCahon D, Horwood J, Payne RA, Duncan P. Funder: RCGP SFB (2018-2019)
- Using national administrative data to evaluate new models of primary care prescribing. Payne RA, Denholm R, McCahon D, Kontopantelis E, Rodgers S. Funder: NIHR School of Primary Care Research (2018-2019)
- The effectiveness of CVD preventative treatment in a multi-morbid population. Denholm R, Macleod J, Payne RA, Morris R, Davies N. Funder: NIHR School for Primary Care Research (2017-2019)
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Developing a model of medication review for use in clinical practice. McCahon D, Duncan P, Payne RA. Funder: RCF (2018)
- Developing a measure of inappropriate polypharmacy in primary care. Payne RA, Hay A, Morris R, MacLeod J, Avery A, Rodgers S, Burt J, Campbell S. Funder: NIHR School for Primary Care Research (2016-2018)
- Impact of hospital admission upon patterns of primary care prescribing. Payne RA, Purdy S, Morris R. Funder: NIHR School for Primary Care Research (2016-2018)