A Digitally Enabled, Pharmacist service to detecT medicine harms in residential aged care: the ADEPT project

The project will be conducted in two phases over 12 months. Phase one will involve extraction of data from digital technologies and integration of the TeleClinical Care platform (TCC) into existing aged care software systems. Phase two will involve a pre-post feasibility study conducted over 12-weeks. Thirty participants residing in residential aged care will be recruited. Baseline data will be collected including demographic details, comorbidities, medicine use, cognition, falls history, and care provided within the aged care facility. Digital technologies will be installed in consenting residents rooms and two weeks baseline data will be collected to serve as a reference point. Sleep data (e.g. total sleep time, sleep efficiency) will be extracted from sleep sensors and activity levels (e.g. sedentary time, light intensity physical activity) from an accelerometer. Data will be uploaded daily to the TCC dashboard where clinically significant changes are detected and the resident is triaged for appropriate action. Number of adverse events will be collected monthly and current medication and medication changes will be collected over the 12-week study period. Outcome data will be collected from participants at 4-, 8-, and 12-weeks and the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS) will be collected at 4-, 8-, and 12-weeks to validate the digital technologies. If and when residents’ health declines beyond a certain threshold compared to baseline levels, the system will automatically flag residents that will alert the pharmacist to take appropriate action (e.g., continue monitoring, perform a review, or initiate multidisciplinary review). The number and types of pharmacist intervention or recommendations following use of the TCC system will be assessed. The pharmacist will be asked to log their recommendations in a pharmacist log.