NUI Galway is recruiting GPs for a cross-border study on how to improve primary care for people with multiple long-term health conditions.
The MyComrade+ study has been granted €500,000 funding researchers from NUIG and Queen’s University Belfast to help create new health and social care research trials for people with multiple long-term health conditions, known as multimorbidity.
The problem with multimorbidity is that research and guidelines are usually carried out and created with a single condition in mind.
For example, research is conducted on patients with diabetes and guidelines are developed for managing patients’ diabetes treatment plan.
However doctors are increasingly seeing patients with multiple long-term conditions which can present unique circumstances when managing different medications and care plans.
Treatment recommendations are usually made by doctors based on guidelines, but where there are multiple medications to manage, those guidelines might not be helpful.
This can cause a wide array of issues for individuals, families, society and health services which can directly impact on a patient’s quality if life.
It can involve dealing with multiple treatment plans, navigating a range of medical specialists for different conditions, and costs, such as medicine, travel and appointments.
Research has shown that the overwhelming experience of the GP in managing treatment for people living with multimorbidity is of isolation.
GPs can feel uncertain and unsupported professionally, to make the best medication recommendations for their patients.
For this project on improving primary care standards, NUIG is recruting General Practices with more than one GP based in Donegal, Sligo and Leitrim to participate in the study.
Professor Andrew Murphy of NUIG and MyComrade+ project lead said “the MyComrade+ study may help to address a common and difficult challenge for GPs and growing numbers of members of the public alike, on how best to manage the many medicines that patients are now taking.”
The funding for this initiative is from the CHITIN intervention trials project which has enabled €8.84 million in funding of 11 health intervention trials on Population Health, Primary Care and Older Peoples Services, Mental Health, Acute Services, Disability Services and Children’s Services.
Match-funding for the project has also been provided by the Department of Health in Northern Ireland and Ireland.
General Practitioners in Donegal, Sligo and Leitrim who wish to participate in the study or require further information can contact lisa.hynes@nuigalway.ie or phone 091 492951.
