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The School of Pharmacy is delighted to announce the successful application by Ms Anne Harnett to pursue her PhD studies commencing 1st April 2021.

8 Apr 2021
Anne Harnett with Prof S Byrne upon her graduation from the MSc Clinical Pharmacy (2006)

This was facilitated by the Employment Based PhD Scholarship Programme of the CoMH.

Anne will be supervised by Dr Laura J Sahm, Professor Stephen Byrne and Professor Declan Lyons (UHL) and the title of her research is: Innovative solutions to overcome swallowing difficulties with medication in the older adult

This work builds upon current research in the School and ongoing collaborations with University Hospital Limerick and the University of Basel, Switzerland.

Background:

Swallowing difficulties are prevalent in the older adult population. Older adults with multiple co-morbidities tend to receive polypharmacy (five or more medications concurrently) and the majority of these are in tablet / capsule forms. To overcome swallowing difficulties, patients may use coping strategies or manipulate (e.g. crush) these medicines. This can result in adverse effects and / or sub-therapeutic effects of prescribed medication.

Aim:

To investigate swallowing difficulties associated with medications and optimise their administration to older patients using a multidisciplinary approach in the hospital setting.

Objectives:

To achieve this aim, three distinct but overlapping objectives have been identified.

To examine and describe current swallowing difficulties in the older adult.
To ascertain the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of key stakeholders regarding swallowing difficulties encountered in administering oral medicines to older adults in the hospital setting.
Based on the results generated from objectives 1 and 2, to propose novel solutions to detect and ameliorate the effects of swallowing difficulties, so that the administration of medicines is optimised.

School of Pharmacy

Cógaisíocht

Cavanagh Pharmacy Building Room UG06 University College Cork

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