'1 Twice Daily', is different to '2 Once a Day' - WHAT WENT WRONG - Medicine Safety Stories

Описание: PHARMACIST Fi shares a fascinating medicine problem story, plus some Top Tips on ways to try to prevent that problem from happening.

Here is a link for you, to the PHARMACIST Fi video she refers to in this video, about making a Medicines, Allergies & Contacts List:
   • #1: Make a 'Medicines, Allergies and Conta...  

& here is a link to the free NPS MedicineWise App which you are welcome to use to help make your Medicines, Allergies & Contacts List:
https://www.nps.org.au/medicinewiseapp

In this video, PHARMACIST Fi tells the story of Ms J, who is given an inhaled asthma preventer medicine, called fluticasone propionate (brand names in Australia include Flixotide, Axotide), but she and her doctor interpret his medicine instructions differently to each other.

When the doctor writes "Take 1 Puff Twice Daily" (to be placed on the medicine label), he thinks this means "take one puff each morning and one puff each night, about 12 hours apart", but he did not mention this to Ms J; whereas she thought "Take 1 Puff Twice Daily" might mean that she could take 2 puffs once a day in the morning, but she did not ask the doctor if this was what he meant...
so, because neither of them asks what the other person was thinking the medicine instructions mean, Ms J unknowingly took it differently to the way the doctor was thinking, so the fluticasone propionate did not work as well as she and the doctor expected it to work... until her doctor referred her to a consultant pharmacist to have a Medicines Review, and the pharmacist asked Ms J exactly how and when she takes her fluticasone propionate... so then the different interpretations are revealed and Ms J is able to start taking her fluticasone propionate the way the doctor meant her to take it, so she starts getting a much better outcome from her treatment.

Please note that fluticasone furoate is a DIFFERENT medicine to fluticasone propionate, and while fluticasone propionate is taken twice per day, fluticasone furoate is only taken once per day in current Australian asthma treatment guidelines when this video was made 04 August 2022.
If you are wondering why some medicines are taken more often or less often than others - this is because:
*our body takes a different amount of time to get rid of different medicines,
&/or
*the medicine's effect in our body lasts for a shorter or longer time
depending on which medicine it is.

The difference in interpretation of the meaning of "Twice Daily" is something I think we health professionals may have failed to educate the general public about until now, but
*we really need to start explaining to our patients that the medical meaning of "Twice Daily" is DIFFERENT to 'once daily',
&
*anyone with "Twice Daily" on a medicine label would be wise to ask their doctor or pharmacist exactly how much time they should leave between the 2 doses (12 hours? or some other amount of time? - this will depend on which medicine it is).

For those of you who did not recognize the inhaled asthma reliever medicine called 'salbutamol' (mentioned near the start of this video): in Australia, salbutamol has brand names like Ventolin, Asmol, Zempreon, Airomir autohaler.

If you are wondering what the 'CMI' documents are - which some of the cartoon people are holding in this video - here is a link to PHARMACIST Fi's video about CMIs (Consumer Medicine Information - which is called 'Medication Guide' in the U.S.A. or 'Patient Information Leaflet' in the U.K.) & why you need one for each of your medicines!
   • #2: Why You Need a CMI for Each Medicine Y...  

We hope you found this PHARMACIST Fi video helpful!

Please also see the disclaimer at the end of this video.