EPiC updated – data current to 31 December 2022

Practitioner, practice and national medicines data for six EPiC dashboard themes and 21 data stories is now current for the period ending 31 December 2022.

Data themes include antibiotics, asthma, cilazapril, CVD, gout and type 2 diabetes. Each data theme includes two to four data stories that highlight known national problems of prescribing practice, many of which contribute to persistently high rates of medicine access inequity.

EPiC uses the Ministry of Health national data collections to give general practice staff a unique way to view all medicines dispensed, not just prescribed, to their enrolled population.

Users are invited to evaluate their own prescribing, or their team’s or the wider community’s prescribing, to identify where quality improvement activities may be targeted. Filters allow comparison between the last two to four data quarters for ethnicity, deprivation, age, and gender.

EPiC data lead Dr Alesha Smith comments that the year-end data shows some positive changes between Jan 2022 and Dec 2022:

• a higher proportion of patients have received more regular dispensing of their medicines, indicating a potential increase in persistence/adherence to their treatments
• an increase in Māori and Pacific peoples receiving SMART therapy for asthma, as recommended in the most recent national asthma guidelines
• a decrease in the seasonality of antibiotic use; this may mean that prescribers are following best practice and prescribing less for viral infections
• a continued decrease in the number of patients receiving cilazapril in readiness for the change of supply of this medicine.

EPiC is free for practitioners and practices to use. It is funded by Pharmac and supports their medicine access equity and responsible use of pharmaceuticals initiatives. A free one-hour training programme is available to assist practices learn to use this resource effectively.

visit EPiC on http://epic.akohiringa.co.nz