Medikationsmanagement is the continuing form of the medication review, because the same structured review of interactions, duplications, doses and adherence happens repeatedly and the pharmacy keeps following the person between the appointments.
A single Medikationsanalyse describes the medication as it stood on one day, whereas Medikationsmanagement describes it as it develops, which means the pharmacy also sees what happened after the last report reached the practice.
The two terms are constantly mixed up, and that confusion is the reason people look either of them up. One is an episode with a beginning and an end, whereas the other is a relationship with review dates in it.
The content of the individual review is broadly the same, though findings are carried forward from one appointment to the next. An open question from the spring can be taken up again in the autumn, and somebody notices when a new prescription from a new prescriber is added to the existing list.
Continuity is also what makes a measured value useful, because a single number is an isolated point and says little unless it is far outside a Referenzbereich. A second value taken later under comparable conditions can be held against the first, and the change between the two is often more informative than either figure on its own.
That comparison is still not a clinical interpretation made in the pharmacy, because the value is one input the pharmacist can see and record, and the decision about the therapy stays with the prescribing physician.
The continuing form asks more of the pharmacy than a one off review does, because four things have to be in place:
- A record has to exist that the next colleague can use.
- The review intervals have to be agreed in advance.
- One named person has to own the case over time.
- There has to be a reliable way of reaching the practice.
A recurring review that never reaches a prescriber produces documents rather than results.
The people it suits are those on Polymedikation and those whose medication changes often. Seen from the counter it is the most concrete thing a pharmacy can contribute to Arzneimitteltherapiesicherheit, because it is the only part of the process that examines the whole list more than once.
This glossary entry is general information about German pharmacy law and practice. It is not legal advice. For binding guidance on your own pharmacy, contact your Landesapothekerkammer.
