PittPharmacy Associate Professor Carolyn T. Thorpe, PhD, MPH and Graduate Student Joshua Niznik ’15  have been awarded a grant from the Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation (a.k.a. the Donaghue Foundation) to examine outcomes of de-prescribing anti-dementia medications in older nursing home residents with advanced dementia. The Another Look grant program from the Donaghue Foundation provides funding for health-related research projects that can improve quality of care and quality of life for elderly nursing home patients

Their project will use Medicare claims, prescription drug records, and Minimum Dataset assessments of residents’ health status to generate evidence regarding the risks and benefits associated with de-prescribing acetylcholinesterase inhibitors in residents whose dementia has progressed to advanced stages and may no longer benefit from continued use of these medications. The team will work with local and national stakeholders to disseminate results of this research so that it can support improved shared decision-making about if and when to stop therapy as dementia progresses.

Other collaborators include Joshua Thorpe, PhD, MPH, Xinhua Zhao, PhD from the School of Pharmacy, and Joseph Hanlon, PharmD, MS, David Nace, MD, MPH from the Division of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.

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