About

History and Nomenclature  

The demand for high-quality, independent, patient-oriented information within the National Health Service (NHS), led to the first drug information (DI) services being established at the London Hospital and Leeds General Infirmary in 1971. Over the next 10 years a UK-wide network of DI services was established, supported by recommendations from a working party of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (now Royal College of Pharmacy). Centres were mainly established in acute hospitals, largely providing a service to their base hospital and associated local healthcare community. In 2000 DI services were renamed Medicines Information (MI) services, in keeping with updated terminology and links to medicines management. Some MI departments have since rebranded themselves as Medicines Advice (MA) services to better reflect the clinical advisory nature of their outputs, and this will be the nomenclature used in this section (whilst acknowledging some services may still be using the term MI).

Listen to this podcast for an more in-depth overview of the history of Medicines Information and for a view on the value a Medicines Information Service.

UK Medicines Information (UKMi)  

UKMi is a coordinated professional support network of MA services across the UK. Its mission is to promote expert practice in MA for the benefit of patients, the public and professionals, through education and communication, and supporting audit, research and innovation. 

The network is coordinated and provided with strategic leadership by a national representative body, the UKMi Executive Committee, a forum through which a range of collaborative and co‐operative strategic and operational work is undertaken. Its main focus is to support and develop the infrastructure that underpins the UKMi network and develop key skills in the MA and broader workforce. These goals are aided by specialist sub-groups, with further short-life working groups are formed as necessary.

Our mission

"As trusted clinical experts, UKMi members inspire excellence by leading innovation, promoting collaboration, building skills and delivering high-quality practice in medicines information and advice to enhance patient care"

The network is coordinated and provided with strategic leadership by a national representative body, the UKMi Executive Committee, a forum through which a range of collaborative and co‐operative strategic and operational work is undertaken. Our aim is to facilitate the delivery of the primary objectives of the UKMi Network. These include, but are not limited to:

• Leading the maintenance and development of professional standards and the UKMi infrastructure to support and develop:
  • the infrastructure and personnel that underpins the UKMi network.
  • key medicines advice skills in the broader pharmacy workforce.
• Improving patient safety and reducing risks associated with medicines and their use in practice. This encompasses a range of work including supporting the implementation of national medicines safety alerts, adverse drug reaction reporting, the evaluation of risks of medicines in use and the provision of specialist information and advisory services.
• Advising healthcare professionals to individualise and optimise patient treatment, delivered by a proactive and responsive service.
• Supporting organisations and networks in their planning and policy work. This includes horizon scanning, support to implement national guidance and also work to support value for money and financial management of the medicines bill.
• Supporting patients with medicine use. This includes providing (or advising on the provision of) safe and effective patient medicine helplines and other patient facing material.

What is Medicines Advice? 

MA is a clinical specialty of hospital pharmacy that is well established within the NHS, with Royal College of Pharmacy Professional Standards for Hospital Pharmacy Services specifying “Access to a Medicines Information service, who are working to national standards for medicine information, is available to health and social care teams”. MA services in the NHS are provided primarily by pharmacists and pharmacy technicians with clinical expertise and particular skills in locating, assessing, and interpreting information about medicines. The aim of the MA service is to facilitate high-quality patient care, through the promotion of the safe, effective and economic use of medicines. This is achieved by the provision of accurate, timely, appropriate, evidence-based and unbiased advice and information on all aspects relating to the use of medicines. Similar service developments are present in advanced healthcare systems in most of the developed world, including Europe, the USA and Australasia, but this chapter will focus on the provision and practice of MA in the UK. 

Medicines Advice Services 

The majority of MA centres are based in acute Trusts, but their size, staffing and activities will vary depending on local or national funding/commissioning arrangements. However, all departments should follow the core medicines MA principles, namely: 

1. Apply evidence-based principles in the provision of impartial, evaluated, accurate and timely advice/information. This will be in a suitable format, that is, pertinent to the user’s needs and readily understood.
2. Provide professional advice to support and influence clinical decisions with respect to patient care and to enable the individual to make a balanced choice.
3. Keep abreast of developments in therapeutics, professional practice, technology and information sources to support continuing professional development within the specialty and to ensure that the service provided is as up to date as possible.
4. Be readily accessible and responsive to user needs.
5. Network with others to share information and experience at local and national levels. 
   

MA services are commissioned and funded by differing routes in each home nation resulting in slightly different service structures. Notably, MA departments in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland (NI) provide a service to both primary and secondary care healthcare professionals in the area they cover, with both Wales and NI also having dedicated National MA centres to coordinate their networks. In England, services to secondary care are usually provided from within the local acute NHS Trust, whereas clinical enquiry answering services to primary care are delivered on a national level, through a network of MA services (NHS Specialist Pharmacy Service (SPS)) commissioned by NHS England. Advice and information provided by the NHS SPS on its website are applicable to all healthcare professionals.