Strategic opportunities for effective optimal prescribing and medication management.

Abstract

No single approach is appropriate for every prescribing problem, health professional prescriber practice or health care setting. Interventions to improve prescribing in community and institutional settings have variable effect sizes. Effectiveness is related to content, delivery mechanisms, intensity, intervention's context, and implementation environment. Even an intervention with a small effect size (< 10%) may yield important changes in drug use when applied on a population basis. Further research and evaluation is needed to determine how or why the interventions work and identify barriers to effective implementation.