Over-the-counter statins

Ozanimod for relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis and how Brexit changed the journey

In 1997, Beta-interferon 1a (Avonnex) was licenced in the European Union (EU) for RRMS to reduce the impact and disease process of MS. Today there is a mixture of tablets, injections and infusions...

Prescribing errors in general practice

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA, 2014) defines a medication error as: ‘a patient safety incident where there has been an error in the process of prescribing, preparing,...

Treating those requiring anticoagulation during the COVID-19 pandemic

However, keeping hospital visits to a minimum has required other changes too. In March 2020, NHS England (2020) quickly devised a plan to switch patients who have previously had a blood clot and were...

The use of pine in a healthcare environment

Considered the largest genus of conifers, Pinus (Pinaceae) includes more than 100 different species (Dziedziński et al, 2021), and Hickman (2021) explains that the creation of the town of Bournemouth,...

Personalisation of DAPT: from ‘bench’ to bedside

Given the ever-increasing body of evidence and availability of scoring systems, the authors aimed to assess if the personalisation of DAPT was being translated into clinical practice. A single centre...

An evaluation of opioid use during acute hospital admissions

The project intended to:.

Drug updates: January

Around 1500 people in England with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a rare genetic condition, will benefit from a new medicine after The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) released...

A challenging winter lies ahead of us

Drug updates: December

Draft guidance, published on the 18 November, is the first time NICE has made recommendations about the use of an HIV treatment since these came under NICE's remit in 2019. It is estimated that...

Statin treatment efficacy, risk and controversy

In a recent study published in the British Medical Journal, Cai et al (2021) aimed to assess the associations between statins and adverse events in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease,...