OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the effect and economic outcomes of the constructed platform of monitoring and early warning for polypharmacy risk of common diseases in elderly patients in China, and provide evidence for optimizing the management mode of polypharmacy in elderly patients.

METHODS: Retrospective data of elderly patients from 64 sample hospitals were imported into the platform system, to identify the potential medication problems and risk warning. Intervention suggestions were given to sample patients according to the platform recommendations. Medication information about multiple drug use, medication compliance and quality of life of the enrolled patients were collected through follow-up survey. The statistic analysis was conducted to compare the differences before and after the platform assisted interventions. Combining the literature data of epidemiology, medication and treatment costs related to polypharmacy in the elderly were calculated, and the possible avoided economic losses and benefits of the constructed platform were evaluated.

RESULTS: The retrospective data of 2439 elderly patients with comorbidities were included, and 6696 drug-related problems were found by the platform, with an average of 3.03 problems per patient. For the 283 sample patients (follow-up time interval ≥7 days), the results showed that the median number of drug-related problems was reduced from 2 to 0 (P<0.0001), the median EQ-5D-5L utility index was improved from 0.84 to 0.89 (P<0.0001), and the median medication compliance score according to the Morisky scale was improved from 5.00 to 6.75 (P<0.0001). The calculated annual expenses showed that the home medicine expenses will be reduced by ￥2369.16, and the hospital expenses will be reduced by ￥2602.11 per capita per year.

CONCLUSIONS: Using the polypharmacy management system platform to assist intervention can improve patients’ medication compliance and quality of life, and the economic evaluation shows that the platform is economical in the short term.