• Anja Rieckert, Anne-Lisa Teichmann, Eva Drewelow, Celine Kriechmayr, Giuliano Piccoliori, Adrine Woodham, and Andreas Sönnichsen.
• Department of Human Medicine, Institute of General Practice and Family Medicine, Faculty of Health, Witten/Herdecke University, Witten, Germany.
• J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2019 Nov 1; 26 (11): 1323-1332.

ObjectiveWe sought to investigate the experiences of general practitioners (GPs) with an electronic decision support tool to reduce inappropriate polypharmacy in older patients (the PRIMA-eDS [Polypharmacy in chronic diseases: Reduction of Inappropriate Medication and Adverse drug events in older populations by electronic Decision Support] tool) in a multinational sample of GPs and to quantify the findings from a prior qualitative study on the PRIMA-eDS-tool.Materials And MethodsAlongside the cluster randomized controlled PRIMA-eDS trial, a survey was conducted in all 5 participating study centers (Bolzano, Italy; Manchester, United Kingdom; Salzburg, Austria; Rostock, Germany; and Witten, Germany) between October 2016 and July 2017. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and chi-square tests.ResultsNinety-one (n = 160) percent of the 176 questionnaires were returned. Thirty-two percent of the respondents reported that they did not cease drugs because of the medication check. The 68% who had discontinued drugs comprise 57% who had stopped on average 1 drug and 11% who had stopped 2 drugs or more per patient. The PRIMA-eDS tool was found to be useful (69%) and the recommendations were found to help to increase awareness (86%). The greatest barrier to implementing deprescribing recommendations was the perceived necessity of the medication (69%). The majority of respondents (65%) would use the electronic medication check in routine practice if it was part of the electronic health record.ConclusionsGPs generally viewed the PRIMA-eDS medication check as useful and as informative. Recommendations were not always followed due to various reasons. Many GPs would use the medication check if integrated into the electronic health record.© The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association.

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