Table 1.

Summary of OPTI-SCRIPT Intervention and Control Procedures

Intervention

Control

Academic detailing with a pharmacist, which entailed one 30-min session in which a pharmacist visited the practice to discuss PIP, a review of medicines, and the web-based pharmaceutical treatment algorithms Medicine review with web-based pharmaceutical treatment algorithms. GPs were asked to conduct 1 review per patient using the web-based platform to guide them through the process. The GP was presented with the specific PIP drug(s) for each patient, and for each PIP drug, was offered a treatment algorithm with the following structure:  1. The individual PIP with reason for concern  2. Alternative pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic treatment options  3. Background information (where relevant) Patient information leaflets to give to patients during the review. Each leaflet:  1. Described the PIP and the reasons why it may be inappropriate  2. Outlined the alternative pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic therapies GPs may offer

Delivery of usual care, which for public general medical services patients allows GPs to give a prescription on a monthly or 3-month basis Receipt of simple, patient-level PIP postal feedback in the form of a list summarizing the medication class to which the individual patient’s potentially inappropriate medication belonged No academic detailing visit, and no prompts to carry out a medicine review with the individual patients

GP = general practitioner; OPTI-SCRIPT = Optimizing Prescribing for Older People in Primary Care, a cluster-randomized controlled trial; PIP = potentially inappropriate prescribing.