Barbro Westerholm (SPF, Sweden – and former Vice-President of AGE) is representing AGE at the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and was recently nominated as a member of the Geriatric Expert Group. This was a request of AGE for a long time since this expert group was essentially made of geriatricians while the voice of older persons was not directly represented in it.
The Geriatric Expert Group provides scientific advice to the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) and the European Medicines Agency secretariat on issues related to older people.
Its work includes:
- giving input related to geriatrics on guidelines under consultation;
- giving advice on geriatric aspects of the development, assessment or safety monitoring of medicines;
- taking part in meetings where expertise on geriatrics is needed;
- contributing to the geriatric implementation plan.
This is a quite crucial work considering the need to develop safer and more adequate medicines for older persons notably to tackle adverse reaction effect, inappropriate prescriptions leading to hospitalisation or other risks linked to poly pharmacy.
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