Keyose Blog - Personal Health Records

As described recently in the medical journal Family Physician adverse drug events are common in older patients, particularly in those taking at least five medications, but such events are predictable and often preventable.

About one in three older persons taking at least five medications will experience an adverse drug event each year, and about two thirds of these patients will require medical attention. Approximately 95 percent of these reactions are predictable, and about 28 percent are preventable.

Keeping a well organized and updated record of the current medications of a patient is a key element to minimize those events. Keyose is an unvaluable tool when dealing with that task.

With Keyose you can update the list of treatments quickly (close to real time). You and your doctors will be able to access to that information from everywhere.

Therefore, the Medications section in your Keyose health record is very important, specially when you take more than 4 drugs.

It is recommended to review and update the list of your medications each 6 months, and everytime you change or introduce some new treatment or a new disease is diagnosed.

A medical researcher, Hamly, described in 1995 a set of simple questions you should ask to your doctor each time you review the medication list with him:

1. Is the indication for which the medication was originally prescribed still present?
2. Are there duplications in drug therapy (i.e., same class)? Are simplifications possible?
3. Does the regimen include drugs prescribed for an adverse reaction? If so, can the original drug be withdrawn?
4. Is the present dosage likely to be subtherapeutic or toxic because of my age and renal status?
5. Are any significant drug-drug or drug-illness interactions present?

The Keyose’s team hopes that our tool serves to minimize drug adeverse effects for you and your family.