Free iPhone HIV Treatment App

posted: 16/11/2010

HIV iChart, a free new iPhone application, has been launched by the University of Liverpool. HIV-iChart gives instant information about the way different HIV drugs interact with other mediations, for people with HIV and clinicians. The new iPhone app for iPhone and iPod Touch is based on the University’s HIV drug interactions website.
 

Drug interactions and side effects

In HIV treatment, people usually take a combination of three anti-HIV drugs, and may take other drugs to treat other health problems. The various drugs can all interact, affecting how well the treatments work and sometimes producing serious side effects. The iPhone app says which drugs should not be used, whether there is a need to monitor the response, adjust the dose, or make other changes in treatment.
 

Ward, clinic, and community uses
Professor David Back, Professor of Pharmacology, said: “We are delighted to launch this application for iPhones that will provide HIV patients and healthcare professionals with instant and easy access to information about HIV drug interactions that is relevant, reliable and up-to-date. HIV iChart can be used on a hospital ward or in a clinic, in primary-care units, health centres and the community. In addition to the HIV drugs interaction website, this new tool will increase awareness of how to manage the disease more effectively.”
 

Dr Ian Williams, Chair of the British HIV Association (BHIVA), said: “This technology provides a marvellous opportunity to greatly increase the ease of access to drug interaction information. This is a way of helping to maintain best practice.”
 

Free app
HIV iCharts is available free of charge and can be downloaded free from the App store in iTunes. The application is compatible with both the iPhone and iPod touch and only requires web access for the initial download and updates.
 

The application has been created by the HIV Pharmacology Group at the University of Liverpool and developed with eMedFusion, a division of the KnowledgePoint360 Group. It is supported by the Elton John AIDS Foundation, MSD and Janssen. HIV iCharts was launched at the Tenth International Congress on Drug Therapy in HIV Infection which was held at the SECC in Glasgow.
 

HIV drug interactions website

Source
 

Watch Out for Drug Interactions

posted: 29/04/2010

Over 1 in 4 people taking HIV treatments face drug-interactions when they take non-HIV treatments  or recreational drugs as well. Most HIV doctors don’t spot this even if you have side effects from the mixing of the HIV and non-HIV treatments or other drugs. The big concern is that the other treatments will mean the HIV drugs don’t work properly. Drug interactions can mean that you will have too little of the HIV drugs in your blood for the drugs to work properly, or far too much.

Researchers from Liverpool University Hospital recorded clinically significant drug interactions in 27% of patients, and over a third of the interactions went unnoticed by doctors.

Best ask and check

Your doctor and HIV pharmacist should check for interactions whenever you are prescribed a new drug. It’s therefore very important that you make sure your HIV doctor and GP doctor know all the drugs you are taking, including those prescribed by other doctors, and any you buy yourself, legal or not. If you are collecting or buying drugs at a pharmacy / chemist, ask the pharmacist if they will interact with your HIV treatments. You can ask to speak to the pharmacist privately.

Although we know that significant drug interactions are common amongst people taking HIV treatment, no previous study has looked into whether HIV doctors spot this when it happens.

What they checked and found

159 people taking HIV treatments in summer 2008 at Liverpool were asked what other medicines and drugs they used – including any prescribed by a healthcare professional, bought over the counter, and recreational drugs.
 

The HIV doctor then identified all potentially significant drug interactions, and said if they had changed the HIV drug doses, or used therapeutic drug monitoring (therapeutic drug monitoring measures how much of the HIV drugs are in your blood – like the bowls of porridge in the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears – is there too much, too little, or just the right amount?).

2 out of 3 people in this study had an undetectable viral load.

Around 1 in 4 people on HIV treatment, 43 people, had potentially significant drug interactions (27%).

Protease inhibitors are main risk

Men, white people, and those taking a protease inhibitor had the greatest risk of drug interactions.

Interactions with protease inhibitors are highly significant. (Being a man also appears significant but they warn that this is unlikely to be true. They say it lacks “biological plausibility.” This means they can’t think how this could happen scientifically and also point out that other research has never found this. Things can sometimes be statistically significant, but statistics can sometimes deceive – perhaps 5 times out of every 100, statistics may mislead.

Too little HIV drugs for 1 in 7
The drug interactions could reduce the working amount of the HIV drugs in the blood for 1 in 7 (15%) of people.

Many other drugs interact
A broad range of interactions were observed, including those with other antiretroviral drugs,antidepressants, antibiotics, statins and recreational drugs.

2 in 3 drug interactions are missed by doctors

Only 36% of interactions were correctly indentified by the treating physicians.

Therapeutic drug monitoring (checking your blood has the right amount of the drugs ) was used to manage 26% of the people with interactions. These people were much more likely to have the doses of their medication increased or decreased, than people not checked in this way.

They advise : “We recommend that all physicians are vigilant to the risks of clinically significant drug interactions, use available drug information resources, and that the pharmacy department aid in identification of clinically significant drug interactions and regularly audit prescribing practice.”

Liverpool has the national centre for HIV drug interactions with a useful online chart. 

Source with reference