The group has recently contributed to a study called ACCEPT about the different ways to administer medication to children and young people - see a video of one of their sessions with Punam Mistry, Research Associate at Birmingham University, the study's Chief Investigator
Oral administration of medicines is the most common route of drug delivery for the paediatric population. Palatability of these medicines is a recognised challenge, especially when considering liquid medicines.
Patient acceptability of medicinal products can have a significant impact on compliance and adherence to treatment regimens. Acceptability is defined as “the overall ability at which both the patient and provider of care can use a medicinal product as intended”.
There is a need to identify age-appropriate tools to assess acceptability - there is currently no instruction of how ‘acceptability’ should be measured.
ACCEPT is an ethically approved study which aims to use patient-reported outcomes (PRO) to identify which existing oral liquid medicines are perceived as acceptable to paediatric NHS inpatients aged 2-16 years, when considering taste alone.
Outputs of this study will be used to identify the most appropriate methods to assess acceptability of medicines for children.
The ACCEPT study is currently taking place at 12 Trusts in the West Midlands