Clinical assessment and management of patients with multimorbidity.

Abstract

Internal medicine specialists, also known as general internal medicine specialists are specialist physicians trained to manage particularly complex or multisystem disease conditions that single-organ-disease specialists may not be trained to deal with. The management of multimorbidity, however, is often complex, and requires specific clinical skills and corresponding experience in appropriate diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Multimorbidity is associated with a decline in many aspects of health and in consequence with an increase in hospital admissions, polypharmacy, and use of health care and social resouces. When prescribing medicine to patients with multimorbidity, all the risks and benefits, as well as possible interactions should be carefully considered. The prescription appropriateness can be assessed by validated tools like STOPP-START criteria. Beneficial part of good prescribing is deprescribing - planned and supervised process of dose reduction or withdrawal of medications that are no longer needed in the circumstances of the patient.