Overview

The goal of this study is to determine if a pharmacist-led educational intervention can reduce the inappropriate use of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) among adult patients (≥18 years) with potentially inappropriate PPI prescriptions in Ras Al Khaimah.

The main questions it aims to answer are:

• Can a pharmacist-led education program reduce unnecessary PPI use?
• Does the intervention improve patients' quality of life and reduce healthcare costs? Researchers will compare the intervention group (receiving pharmacist-led education and materials) to the usual care group to see if the intervention reduces PPI use and improves patient outcomes.

Participants will:

• Receive educational materials from pharmacists, including a patient educational brochure, PPI patient decision aid, PPI deprescribing pamphlet, and PPI patient action plan.
• Physicians involved will also receive a pharmaceutical intervention, which includes a physician educational brochure, PPI evidence-based deprescribing guideline, PPI deprescribing algorithm, and whiteboard videos on PPI deprescribing.
• Patients will be followed up for 6 months to monitor changes in PPI use, symptoms, and quality of life.

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

Physicians will be eligible to participate if:

• They are prescribing PPIs in outpatient department of the study sites
• They have patients with potentially inappropriate PPI prescriptions

Patients will be eligible to participate if:

• They are ≥18 years
• They are presenting to out-patient departments of the study sites
• They have prescriptions of potentially inappropriate PPIs
• Their treating physicians are included in the study

Exclusion Criteria:

Physicians will be excluded if:

• They are involved in any other prescribing trial

Patients will be excluded if:

• They are unable to give informed consent, as judged by their physicians
• They have definitive indications for PPI use