ACE inhibitors and “sartans” are the NHS’s second most commonly prescribed drugs, used to treat a range of cardiovascular problems. Work by members of CCHSR published in the journal PLOS One shows that their increasing use appears to be strongly associated with acute kidney injury.
Clinical trials are carefully designed to establish the efficacy and safety of new drugs. But how relevant are they to the real-world setting of general practice? And what can general practice do to try and help research into drug safety?
Over the last year, the English NHS spent £10 billion on prescribing around a billion items in primary care. Yet a substantial amount of medication use may be potentially inappropriate. How can we as researchers potentially address this problem?
