A daily multivitamin (MVM) slowed epigenetic aging in a randomized trial after 2 years; effect was small (~2 months) and not seen with cocoa extract supplement (vitamin was Centrum Silver) nature.com/articles/s41...
Large-Scale Insulin Overdoses From Syringe-Related Errors: Analysis and Insights Across 47 Hospitals
#Pharmsky
patientsafetyj.com/article/1466...
π¨ EXC: Antony Higginson has fought a one man war against the NHS establishment to get answers after his wife was given 6 toxic doses of paracetamol. Now the actions of 41 doctors and nurses are being re-examined after a coroner blasted their honesty:
www.thetimes.com/article/dc5e...
Public services play an important role in supporting householdsβ well-being and their membersβ life chances. This is especially true for low- and middle-income households, for whom the in-kind services received represent a larger share of overall consumption and for whom equivalent private services may be prohibitively expensive. Most public service spending in Scotland β including the vast majority of what is spent on health, education, social care, transport, public order and safety, environmental and rural affairs and housing β is devolved to the Scottish Government and Scottish local authorities. But some β such as a significant share of research funding β is reserved to the UK government. Spending on public services β both devolved and reserved β was 22% higher per person in Scotland than in England in 2024β25, while benefit spending was 12% higher per person. But how is this higher spending allocated across different services? How have these allocations changed over time? What are the trade-offs between services in future? And how do a range of headline indicators of public service outcomes vary between Scotland and the rest of Great Britain?
Public service spending and performance in Scotland.
"Scottish public services are struggling to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, and cuts to some services loom."
ifs.org.uk/publications...
Common anticholinergic medicines may raise cardiovascular risk
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
People who use drugs with anticholinergic effects, drugs for urinary incontinence and common antihistamines, are at higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease
medicalxpress.com/news/2026-03...
Best evidence yet that GLP-1 drugs reduce the risk of substance abuse, from >600,000 US Veterans with T2 diabetes across alcohol, nicotine, opioid, cocaine, cannabis @zalaly.bsky.social
@bmj.com
www.bmj.com/content/392/...
New in the BMJ: Our study of 600,000 people found GLP-1 drugs associated with 50% fewer substance-related deaths, 39% fewer overdoses, and reduced addiction risk across alcohol, opioids, cocaine, cannabis, and nicotine.
www.bmj.com/content/392/...
π‘ "Anticholinergic Burden" refers to the cumulative anticholinergic effect of all medications taken by an individual.
A helpful systematic review has compiled available anticholinergic burden scales, comparing them based on factors such as included medications & scoring systems:
buff.ly/ExUaJoT
Updated polypharmacy prescribing guidance. 'Appropriate Prescribing - Making medicines safe, effective and sustainable 2025-2028' aims to further improve the care of individuals taking multiple medicines through the use of 7-Steps medicine reviews and promotes a holistic approach to person-centred care.
Polypharmacy Guidance: appropriate prescribing, making medicines safe, effective and sustainable 2026 - 2029 π΄σ §σ ’σ ³σ £σ ΄σ Ώ
#Pharmsky
www.gov.scot/publications...
Text from a JAMA article titled, "The Lost Aura of the Physician in the Age of Artificial Intelligence" by John D. Lantos, MD. The article discusses the role of AI in medicine and its impact on the physician-patient relationship.
π¬ Perspective: As #AI increasingly guides diagnosis, documentation, and patient management, physiciansβ roles are changing, prompting questions about sustaining empathy, accountability, and trust in algorithmic care.
ja.ma/40BYQPR
New report. Insulin: supporting safe self-administration for patients in the community with a mental health problem.
Action is needed to improve access to specialist diabetes care for adults who self-administer insulin and live with a mental health problem. Gaps between services are putting vulnerable patients at risk. Read the report: buff.ly/Q6LwQtI #Diabetes #MentalHealth #EatingDisordersAwarenessWeek
The Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons Glasgow are inviting healthcare professionals to help shape their Non-Clinical Professional Skills courses.
The survey is open until 9am on Tuesday 3 March and is open to all healthcare professionals.
#Pharmsky #Medsky
forms.office.com/e/y1NM7Gt1AS
ππͺπ₯ πΊπ°πΆ π¬π―π°πΈ? #MedicationErrors aren't limited to just medicines. They can occur in these areas as well:
π Vaccines
π©Έ Medical devices
π Supplements
π©Ί Diagnostics
We go beyond medicines in the thread belowπ
Get the full scoop π ow.ly/F4q150W5qYF
βsimple repetition trick with ChatGPT when it misses the point β and it works every timeβ
@techradar.com
www.techradar.com/ai-platforms...
unbelievably good from @jburnmurdoch.ft.com @sarahoconnorft.ft.com on the intensification of (knowledge) work under AI
www.ft.com/content/9c6a...
It reminds me a bit of when the Internet arrived, that sense of a cornucopia of content, an infinite bookstore, a neverending toread list. 1/
In people age 50+, the Covid booster halved hospitalization and deaths.
Waning of benefit after 3-6 months
For the mRNA BA.1 booster vs no shot after initial vaccination
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
The new NICE Type 2 Diabetes in adults guidance recommends that most people should now be offered metformin along with an SGLT-2 inhibitor from the start. The guidance also recommends that people should be given a slow-release form of metformin.
#Pharmsky
www.nice.org.uk/news/article...
There is a picture of a young girl in a wheelchair being embraced by her mother. There is text along the bottom of the picture that says, The patient and carer voice in Scotlandβs medicine assessments. The Healthcare Improvement Scotland logo is also included.
The Scottish Medicines Consortium considers a range of factors when deciding whether to accept a new medicine.
Patient representatives are an important part of the process.
In this video, SMA UK explains the importance of including the patient voice.
Link to watch the video is in the comments.
Prescription rates for GLP-1s are around 30% lower in the most deprived areas, despite obesity being twice as common. If this pattern persists, it could have far reaching effects on health inequalities.
Samantha Field discusses our new analysis on Radio 4's Today.
Listen from 54:00 π§
How seaweed is replacing singleβuse plastics in healthcare.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
π’ New trial: Budesonideβglycopyrroniumβformoterol fumarate dihydrate in uncontrolled #asthma (KALOS and LOGOS)
π These findings show that BGF improves lung function and reduces severe exacerbation rates in a broad population with asthma inadequately controlled
π www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
A healthy diet, accounting for longevity-related genes, adds 2-3 years of life expectancy
from >100,000 people followed 10.6 years, max benefit for starting at youngest age (Figure)
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
π In their Comment, Peter Hanlon and colleagues discuss pragmatic prescribing for people with moderate or severe frailty in primary care
Read the full Comment here β‘οΈ www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
We have just recommended that medicines containing #levamisole, used to treat parasitic worm infections, be withdrawn from the EU market due to the risk of leukoencephalopathy, a condition that affects the brainβs white matter.
Read more π www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/meet...
#PublicHealth #MedSky π§ͺ
Our just published pilot study found community pharmacies are a promising site for expanding access to HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) - particularly for under-served groups who may not engage with traditional #SexualHealth clinics
#PrEP #HIV #HIVPrevention
arc-w.nihr.ac.uk/community-ph...
Line graph titled 'Incident dementia' shows hazard ratio (95% CI) vs. caffeinated coffee intake. The curve starts at 1.0, declines until about 3 c/d intake, then slightly rises. Intake c/d ranges from 0 to >5. No. of cases and person-years are also provided.
Moderate consumption of caffeinated coffee or tea was linked to reduced #dementia risk and modest improvements in cognitive outcomes; no benefit was seen for decaffeinated coffee in an observational study of US adults.
bit.ly/4bEUa2F
JAMA Research Letter, published Feb 9, 2026, shows smartwatch hypertension notification impact. Illustration of feature performance among people with/without hypertension. For those with, 41/100 had appropriate alert. For those without, 8/100 had inappropriate alert.
The FDA recently cleared a new smartwatch #hypertension notification feature for the Apple Watch. In this study, researchers applied performance metrics to nationally representative US survey data to better understand the potential population impact.
bit.ly/3O3Wiaw
Consultation rates between 2010 and 2022 show locums make a larger contribution to UK #PrimaryCare than official statistics suggest.Β
#Locum use increased in England, remained flat in Wales, and decreased in Scotland and Northern Ireland doi.org/10.3399/BJGP... @tommyallen87.bsky.socialΒ
We are recruiting. Find out more and apply today β¬
πΉPrimary Care Pharmacy Technician apply.jobs.scot.nhs.uk/Job/JobDetai...
πΉPrimary Care Deputy Team Leader - Prison Service apply.jobs.scot.nhs.uk/Job/JobDetai...
πΉSpecialist Healthcare Scientist apply.jobs.scot.nhs.uk/Job/JobDetai...
To improve prescribing, national asthma guidelines must be fully implemented. We recommend: 1 Modernise inhaler prescribing. Implement updated inhaler guidance: a. No-one should be prescribed a short-acting beta agonist (SABA) only treatment regime. Where a SABA is indicated for short-term relief, there should also be a concurrent Inhaler Corticosteroid (ICS) prescription to address underlying causes of asthma symptoms. b. Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), Health Boards, and Health and Social Care Boards must ensure that dangerous SABA-only prescribing is identified and reviewed. Where appropriate, SABA should be replaced with ICS-formoterol combination inhalers as the main treatment approach. c. All newly diagnosed children and young people aged 5-11 years should be prescribed low-dose inhaled corticosteroid, with a SABA inhaler as needed. d. ICBs must ensure that all patients with poorly controlled asthma are assessed and treated in line with NICE guidelines. For people with regular asthma symptoms, a history of exacerbations or asthma attacks, oral steroid use, hospitalisation or SABA overuse this is likely to include MART therapy.19 e. ICBS must increase awareness of safety issues around respiratory prescribing through alerts to highlight potentially unsafe prescribing and audits, which can be performed to identify SABA- only prescribing and SABA overuse and ICS underuse. 2 As part of the above, for patients to receive excellent care, clinicians must ensure that all three aspects of gold-standard inhaler switching care are provided: a. No patients should have their inhaler switched without informed consent and shared decision making. b. In-person inhaler technique guidance must be provided alongside any switch: every patient must be shown how to use their new inhaler. c. Clinician-initiated follow-up appointments must be arranged and completed within four to eight weeks after a personβs inhaler is switched.βΉΒ² 3 ICBs should explore innovative ways of delivering highβ¦
