Perspectives on medication safety and use: pharmacoeconomics, public policy & practice and pharmacists education

Medication safety is a joint responsibility of all stakeholders in the healthcare system. Therefore, the work in the thesis of Tanja Fens used different perspectives in order to promote safe use of medicines: the pharmacoeconomic-, public policy- and educational perspective.
In the pharmacoeconomic area, safety can be added as a structural element in economic evaluations, in budget-impact analyses and within the existing quality assessment checklists. In public policy and practice, it is necessary to emphasize the value of safety and include it in the instruments used for public health decisions of vaccines. Enhancing access to safety data might be achieved by broadening existing data platforms and supporting novel open-access ones, such as the Safety Research Database for and from Economic Evaluations (SRDEE). Additionally, increased attention for medication safety in the context of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) and Managed Entry Agreements (MEAs) is needed. Regarding education, innovative educational concepts for pharmacists, including simulation and gaming, such as the Pharmacy Game, could enhance the focus of healthcare professionals to medication safety. In conclusion, a combination of innovative methods and tools can be implemented in order to optimize medication safety, by applying different perspectives as discussed in this thesis.