The group Invesmay is made up of pharmacists from Hospital Pharmacy, Community Pharmacy, Primary Care physicians, specialists in Geriatrics and professors from the University's Pharmacology and Public Health Departments . PHOTO: Manuel Castells

The School of Pharmacy of the University of Navarra has promoted a new group of research, Invesmay, which aims to develop clinical care strategies to improve the quality of life of the elderly with problems in performing routine tasks. At present, health problems are the cause of the disability of 23,000 elderly people in the Autonomous Community of Navarra.

One of the first programs of study to be carried out by group Invesmay will analyze the use of antipsychotics, without indication in the data sheet, in patients with dementia. A highly topical topic that has been initiated in institutionalized patients in gerontological centers and will be extended to patients using day centers and outpatients. The project, which will last one year, aims to deepen the internship widespread use of antipsychotics to manage behavioral and neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with dementia, explains one of the researchers of the School Pharmacy, Idoia Beltran.

Research is also being carried out on the factors that influence the alterations of report and on the optimization of treatments in Alzheimer's disease.

Various pharmacy professionals

The team is made up of pharmacists from Hospital Pharmacy, Community Pharmacy; Primary Care physicians, specialists in Geriatrics and professors from the Pharmacology and Public Health Departments of the academic center. "It is a group multidisciplinary that has been constituted from the participation of all of them in the Master's Degree in Pharmaceutical Care in Geriatrics of the University of Navarra, where the teaching and the research has allowed us to detect points of improvement in the care of the elderly," adds Berta Lasheras, director of the Master's Degree.

Its purpose, according to the expert, is to consolidate itself as a prestigious team that promotes a quality healthcare attendance based on scientific evidence: "We have established a commitment to the elderly person; maintaining respect for their dignity, confidentiality, ethical use of the analysis and publication of the data, and equity and partnership among all the professionals of the group".

The group of research will work in partnership with the high school of Pharmacists of Navarra in one of the most important health challenges such as the epidemiological transition. The presentation took place at the closing of the last edition of the Master's Degree in Pharmaceutical Care in Geriatrics of the academic center.

Interview with researcher Idoia Beltrán on 98.3 Radio: