Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

It is well-known that, while medications are of great benefit to patients, they also have the potential to cause considerable harm, even when taken as directed. Sometimes, when two medications are taken at the same time, one of them can change the effect that the other one has on the body. Some of the effects resulting from medication combinations can be dangerous, causing serious harm or even death to patients. Many people have studied the impact of medication combinations among elderly people or those who were very ill, but recent studies from European countries show that younger and healthier populations are also at risk of harm from experiencing dangerous medication combinations. The number of medications taken by patients in Canada is higher now than ever before, and it continues to climb; this increases the risk that people will be exposed to dangerous medication combinations, especially in the case of people seeing multiple physicians. Whether the adult (20-65 years of age) population of Quebec is currently exposed to these potentially dangerous medication combinations is currently unknown. We will measure the impact that dangerous medication combinations have on the health of adults in Quebec. We will first analyse electronic health and mortality databases for the population of Quebec to find out how common it is for patients to be exposed to dangerous medication combinations, and then we will see if we find a link between certain dangerous medication combinations and negative health effects for patients. We are then interested in studying patients' experiences of being exposed to dangerous medication combinations in order to design a mobile application to help patients make informed decisions about their medication intake.