Medicines optimisation: the safe and effective use of medicines to enable the best possible outcomes
This guideline offers best practice advice on the care of all people who are using medicines and also those who are receiving suboptimal benefit from medicines, from the point of view of NICE based of the best available evidence.
Medicines prevent, treat or manage many illnesses or conditions and are the most common intervention in healthcare. However, it has been estimated that between 30% and 50% of medicines prescribed for long?term conditions are not taken as intended (World Health Organization 2003). This issue is worsened by the growing number of people with long term conditions (long?term condition is defined as 'a condition that cannot, at present, be cured but is controlled by medication and/or other treatment/therapies'). The number of long term conditions a person may have also increases with age, being reported that 25% of people aged over 60 years report having 2 or more long ...