NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: North Slave Region

Tags: health, health care

Objective(s): To explore appropriate medication prescribing strategies that are being delivered by various organizations or programs, as well as understand the determinants that affect their implementation.

Project Description: The objective of this study is to explore appropriate medication prescribing strategies that are being delivered by various organizations or programs, as well as understand the determinants (key challenges and opportunities) that affect their implementation. The aim of this study is to spark a national conversation about a possible framework for appropriate use at the Canadian level. The results of this process will be a description of various organizations and their implementation strategies, as well as best practice principles underpinning a potential national framework. As the research team are seeking to understand as many perspectives from across the country, the team are cognizant of the value of an interview with a representative from the NWT, who can speak to the unique context, challenges and opportunities faced when implementing appropriate use interventions in the territory. The research team will be conducting forty semi-structured qualitative interviews with representatives from: 1) organizations across the globe that focus on developing and implementing approaches to appropriate prescribing, 2) individual experts, 3) individuals from ministries of health across Canada. Each interview will be a sixty minute interview conducted over the telephone. The interview guides are informed by key questions from Health Canada and additional questions, the Theoretical Domains Framework and the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research, to identify barriers/facilitators to implementation of appropriate prescribing and use initiatives. Possible participants have been identified by Health Canada as organizations of interest. The participants have received an email inviting them to participate in an interview. A participant at the Department of Health and Social Services has already been identified by Health Canada & through snowballing techniques (asking other key informants/individual experts to identify possible participants in the NWT). The team will also be conducting a document review based on relevant documents identified by interview participants & through examining the websites of targeted organizations for eligible documents that address the development, implementation and/or evaluation of appropriate prescribing and use strategies. The project seeks to understand the processes used by organizations across Canada in implementing its' interventions & strategies related to the appropriate use and prescribing of medications. While the team have included many perspectives from larger provinces (Ontario, BC, Alberta) by nature of where these organizations operate, the team recognize the importance of including perspectives from the territories where possible. The research team are seeking insight from a representative at the Department of Health and Social Services, who can speak to the unique challenges and opportunities faced at the regional level, related to implementing these types of interventions in the NWT setting. Therefore, there are no opportunities for local involvement, as the team will not be seeking input from members of the public for this research study. As the study is researching organization-level processes (and not community-based research), there is no plan to communicate the results of this study to individuals and communities in the NWT. A final report of the results will be shared with all participants of this study, who may share the results with their own organization and networks. As the results of the study will only be of interest to organizations implementing appropriate prescribing initiatives, the results will likely be shared with these groups through a final report, academic paper, or conferences/academic meetings. Ultimately, it will be at Health Canada's discretion if they deem it appropriate to share the results to the wider public. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from May 31, 2019 to June 30, 2019.