Polypharmacy is common among older patients with common diseases. There is a strong need for evaluation management and consultation services of polypharmacy among older patients from medical workers, patients and their families. However, the functional design of how to scientifically and accurately manage services and consultations based on Internet technology for different categories of users has not been adequately studied.
To conduct investigation on the design of the service functions and methods of platform for evaluation management and consultation services of polypharmacy among older patients for healthcare professionals, taking the Internet services oriented to improve irrational drug use and reduce drug-related adverse events in older patients as a new idea.
Healthcare professionals from medical institutions participating in the National Key Research and Development Program (Multiple Drug Use Risk Management for Common Diseases of the Elderly) from 2021-02-20 to 2021-03-06 were selected as research subjects, the self-designed Questionnaire on Platform for Evaluation Management and Consultation Services of Polypharmacy among Older Patients Needs of Healthcare Professionals focusing on the necessity, operation mode and function of the platform were distributed. Principal component analysis was used to extract common factors for each platform function, and further factor rotation was performed using Kaiser's normalized maximum variance method, and the mean values of each factor score were ranked to explain the relative importance of each factor.
A total of 548 valid research questionnaires were collected in this study with recovery rate of 100.00%. The cumulative total variance explained by the third factor in the sum of squared factor extracted for the 8 platform functions (patient compliance evaluation, prescription appropriateness evaluation, prescription economy evaluation, medication administration notification and reminder, medication administration precautions, medication administration record management, potential medication problem reminder, adverse drug reactions record and analysis) was 77.036%. The 8 platform functions were finally extracted into 3 factors, named as reminder factor (F1) , evaluation factor (F2) , and adverse analysis factor (F3) , and the ranking of the mean values of the 3 factors in descending order was F1 (mean factor score of 2.977) , F2 (mean factor score of 0.118) , and F3 (mean factor score of 0.112) .
From the perspective of healthcare professionals, reminder, evaluation and adverse analysis are the main operation modes and core functions of the platform for evaluation management and consultation services of polypharmacy among older patients, with reminder-related functions as the most important functions, which will provide substantial help to ensure the effective contribution of the platform to the construction of polypharmacy risk monitoring and control system for common diseases of the elderly in China.
Our research team has previously conducted investigation on platform for evaluation management and consultation services of polypharmacy among older patients needs of healthcare professionals to ensure a close association between the design and development of the platform and actual needs. However, the awareness of the risks associated with polypharmacy in the elderly and needs of manage services and consultations based on Internet among general population have been rarely reported in China.
To understand the awareness of platform for evaluation management and consultation services of polypharmacy among older patients of general population, so as to further explore the operation mode of the platform and provide guidance for its improvement and refinement.
The self-designed Questionnaire on Platform for Evaluation Management and Consultation Services of Polypharmacy among Older Patients Needs of General Population focusing on the operation mode and importance of each function were distributed to the users of HeFen Club platform of China Mobile from 2021-09-29 to 2021-10-09, using HeFen Club WeChat public platform of China Mobile as the investigation platform and web-based questionnaire survey for general population as the investigation method. Principal component analysis was used to extract common factors for each platform function, and Kaiser's normalized maximum variance method was further used to rotate the factors and rank the mean scores of each factor to explain the relative importance of each factor.
A total of 29 502 valid questionnaires were collected in this study with a recovery rate of 94.89%. The cumulative total variance explained by the fourth factor in the sum of squared factor extracted for the 12 platform functions (patient compliance evaluation, prescription appropriateness evaluation, prescription economy evaluation, medication administration notification and reminder, medication administration precautions, medication administration record management, potential medication problem reminder, manual real-time consultation, manual non-real-time consultation, self-service query, medication administration reminder, and record analysis) was 76.791%; The 12 platform functions were finally extracted into 4 factors, named as reminder factor (F1) , evaluation factor (F2) , query and record factor (F3) and consultation factor (F4) , and the ranking of the mean values of the 4 factors in descending order was F2 (mean factor score of 0.507) , F1 (mean factor score of 0.457) , F3 (mean factor score of 0.430) , and F4 (mean factor score of 0.253) .
Nearly 90.00% of the respondents believe that older adults with multiple common diseases are at risk of polypharmacy and need a platform for management and consultation services of polypharmacy. From a public perspective, reminder, evaluation, querying and record, consultation are the main operation modes and core functions of the platform for evaluation management and consultation services of polypharmacy among older patients.
