Medicines Optimisation SIG

Medicines Optimisation Special Interest Group (MO SIG)

Focus and purpose

Medicines play a crucial role in preventing illness, managing chronic conditions and curing disease. Whilst medicines can transform individual lives and improve public health, their use is too often sub-optimal resulting in avoidable harm and resource use.

Medicines optimisation is about making sure that the right patient, gets the right medicine, at the right time. Behavioural medicine has a huge role to play in realising medicines optimisation through targeting the behaviours of patients and carers, healthcare professionals and policy makers. The Medicines Optimisation SIG provides a forum for exchanging ideas, knowledge, information and best practice between those interested in applying behavioural medicine to address medicines optimisation challenges, including:

Medication adherence
Appropriate prescribing and deprescribing
Preventing and managing the behavioural side-effects of medicines

The application of behavioural medicine to address medicines optimisation challenges is a relatively new but growing discipline. By bringing together patient/public representatives, healthcare professionals, researchers and third sector organisations, the SIG aims to grow the field in terms of size and scope by cultivating networks, collaborations and ideas.

Planned activities and Events

Form partnerships with organisations and networks to raise the profile of behavioural medicine’s application to address medicines optimisation challenges
Facilitate conference symposia and webinars to raise the profile of existing behavioural science medicines optimisation research
Convene sandpit events to bring together behavioural science experts and medicines optimisation experts (including experts by experience) to kick start the next big behavioural science medicines optimisation research ideas

You can find out more information about our news and events by following #UKSBMMOSIG on X.

Events

Sion Scott and Debi Bhattacharya host the UK Society for Behavioural Medicine’s inaugural Medicines Optimisation Special Interest Group webinar. This 90-minute facilitated session includes talks from three global leaders in the application of behavioural science to address medicines optimisation challanges:

Professor Anne Spinewine (Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium)

Using behavioural science in deprescribing research: sharing experience and lessons learned from two research projects

Dr Kiera Bartlett & Professor David French (University of Manchester, UK).

Promoting medication adherence using SMS messages: developing and refining the Summit-d intervention

Following the talks Sion and Debi will facilitate a curated discussion with the speakers and audience member.

Link to sign-up: https://bit.ly/4f8DC1C