What was iSIMPATHY?

iSIMPATHY was a €3.1M EU funded project that ran across the three jurisdictions of Northern Ireland, Scotland and the border areas of the Republic of Ireland from October 2019 until March 2023.

iSIMPATHY sought to transform the approach to optimisation of medicines through the delivery of medicine reviews to over 6,000 patients taking multiple medicines, and in delivering training to 120 GPs, hospital doctors and pharmacists. It provided a significant contribution towards the embedding of a single approach for polypharmacy management as well as firmly establishing the value of cross-border working in this field.

Read the evaluation report.

Polypharmacy and iSIMPATHY medicines reviews

Taking multiple medicines can be appropriate but may be problematic, such as when the increased risk of harm from interactions between drugs or between drugs and diseases outweigh the intended benefits. iSIMPATHY used the 7-steps approach for medicine reviews, supporting patients and clinicians to define and achieve realistic goals of drug treatment, and helping enable patients to lead healthy and active lives.

Medicine reviews achieve the best outcomes for patients’ health and wellbeing, but they are also cost effective. They provide immediate effects by ensuring optimal use of medicine (which may result in deprescribing) but also because of the downstream effect reviews can have, such as reduced hospital admissions, time in hospital and other primary care and social care settings.

iSIMPATHY medicine reviews are now embedded as a shared approach to polypharmacy that is scalable through cross-border shared learning and will extend beyond the lifespan of the project.

What is the 7 Steps Testimonials

Funding and partners

The €3,520,671 budget was funded through the European Union’s INTERREG VA Programme, with 85% awarded by SEUPB, and 15% provided by each of the project partners.

iSIMPATHY was managed by corporate partners the Scottish Government, the Health Service Executive, the Medicines Optimisation Innovation Centre and the Special European Projects Body (SEUPB), with delivery partners NHS Highland, NHS Dumfries & Galloway, NHS Ayrshire & Arran, Heath Service Executive CH01 and CH08, and Northern Health and Social Care Trust.