International Deprescribing Journal Club
About the International Deprescribing Journal Club
The Canadian Medication Appropriateness and Deprescribing Network works with international partners to host the journal club’s quarterly sessions. This journal club is for clinicians and researchers around the globe looking to connect and discuss recent deprescribing publications and complex clinical cases.
Goals of the International Deprescribing Journal Club
Strengthen partnerships among international deprescribing networks
Stay current with the literature and share knowledge
Build momentum and collaboration to facilitate larger international deprescribing trials showing impacts of deprescribing
Session topics & format
Content includes deprescribing case studies, recent literature, or a combination of both
Sessions last approximately 50 to 60 minutes, including a minimum of 20 minutes of Q&A
Sessions are recorded and posted on the Canadian Medication Appropriateness and Deprescribing Network’s YouTube channel.
Evaluating a GP-delivered deprescribing intervention: main results and secondary analyses of the SPPiRE trial
Date and time: Thursday, November 27, 2025, 11-12 PM (Montréal, Canada)
Other time zones: Thursday, November 27, 2025, 4-5 PM (Dublin, Ireland)
Thursday, November 27, 2025, 8-9 AM (Los Angeles, USA)
Friday, November 28, 2025, 3-4 AM (Melbourne, Australia)
Hosted by: Network of European Researchers in Deprescribing (NERD)
Moderator: Dr. Wade Thompson (PharmD, PhD)
Upcoming session
Presenter: Dr. Caroline McCarthy (MD) is a practicing general practitioner and academic based at Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, University of Medicine and Health Science. Her research is focused around the safe and equitable use of medicines within primary care. Her doctoral work was a cluster RCT based in Irish primary care that was designed to assess the effectiveness of a deprescribing intervention in older patient with high levels of polypharmacy (SPPiRE trial). She led the SPPiRE trial's parallel mixed methods process evaluation.
Description: This session will share practical lessons from the SPPIRE randomised controlled trial, including how the intervention and trial were designed and delivered in general practice. It will also cover the parallel process and economic evaluations, and how the trial data have been used for several follow-on studies.
Learning objectives:
Describe key learnings from designing and running a randomised trial in primary care.
Understand how process and economic evaluations can add depth to a trial’s findings.
Recognise how secondary analyses can generate additional insights beyond the main trial findings.
Past session
Optimising Medication for Vulnerable Populations: Translating Research to Practice
Presenter: Dr. Juliette O’Connell and Dr. Cristín Ryan
Date: September 25th, 2025
Hosted by: European Society of Clinical Pharmacy
Description: This session focused on medication use in older adults with intellectual disability and the recently developed medicine optimisation tool: Optimising PharmacoTherapy and Improving Medication for Ageing with Intellectual Disability (OPTIMA-ID).
DELTA-PIA - Controlled Discontinuation of Levothyroxine in Subclinical Hypothyroidism - A Participatory Intervention Approach
Presenter: Dr. Karen Voigt
Moderators: Prof. Achim Mortsiefer and Prof. Petra Thürmann
Date: May 23rd, 2025
Hosted by: German Deprescribing Network
Description: This session focuses on the controlled discontinuation of levothyroxine in patients with subclinical hypothyroidism. The speaker presented a deprescribing intervention built on participatory development (DELTA-PIA study) which was conducted in Germany from 2023 to 2025.
Click here to download slides (PDF).
Successful Deprescribing in Chronic Pain: Discussions of Two Complex Cases
Presenter: Anne Marie Pinard, MD, MEd
Moderator: Camille Gagnon, PharmD, MSc
Hosted by: Canadian Medication Appropriateness and Deprescribing Network & Quebec Pain Research Network
Date: February 27th, 2024
Description: Using two real-life clinical cases, this session described the process of deprescribing or rotating opioids, gabapentinoids and other medication classes.
Engaging inpatient clinicians in deprescribing: lessons from an implementation science approach.
Presenter : Michelle Keller, PhD
Moderator : Roni Kraut MD, MSc
Hosted by: US Deprescribing Research Network
Date: December 12th, 2024
Description: Dr. Keller discussed the paper Identifying barriers and facilitators to deprescribing benzodiazepines and sedative hypnotics in the hospital setting using the Theoretical Domains Framework and the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation and Behaviour (COM-B) Model: a qualitative study.
Reducing inappropriate prescribing in older adults: Lessons learned from Swiss primary care settings
Presented by: Dr. Katharina Tabea Jungo
Hosted by: Network of European Researchers in Deprescribing (NERD)
Date: Oct 30, 2024
Dr. Jungo discussed the article Optimising prescribing in older adults with multimorbidity and polypharmacy in primary care (OPTICA): cluster randomised clinical trial, including findings of the health economic analysis and the implementation evaluation conducted alongside the OPTICA trial. Click here to download slides (PDF)
Measurement issues in medication safety: what matters, what data do we have and how do we evaluate cost effectiveness?
Presented by: Dr. Jean Spinks
Hosted by: Australian Deprescribing Network
Date: May 21, 2024
Description: Dr. Spinks discussed the article Activating pharmacists to reduce the frequency of medication-related problems (ACTMed) : a stepped wedge cluster randomised trial.
Prescribing Cascades: Identifying, Managing, and Preventing the Domino Effect
Presented by: Dr. Kieran Dalton and Dr. Lisa McCarthy
Hosted by: European Society of Clinical Pharmacy
Date: March 6, 2024
Description: This session provides an overview of key research to help inform the focus and design of guidance, tools, and interventions to minimise the occurrence of prescribing cascades in patients. Click here to download slides (PDF)
Deprescribing educational framework : challenges for implementation and educational scholarship
Presented by: Dr. Barbara Farrell, Dr. Lalitha Raman-Wilms, and Dr. Cheryl A. Sadowski
Hosted by: Canadian Medication Appropriateness and Deprescribing Network
Date: December 6, 2023
Description: Based on the first international interprofessional deprescribing curricular framework, the lead authors share the highlights and discuss application. Click here to download slides (PDF)
Lessons from a pilot of ALIGN: Aligning Medications with What Matters Most
Presented by: Dr. Ariel Green
Hosted by: US Deprescribing Research Network
Date: September 20, 2023
Description: ALIGN is a pragmatic, pharmacist-led telehealth intervention in primary care to optimize medications for people living with dementia and reduce inappropriate polypharmacy by focusing on what matters most to patients and care partners. Click here to download slides (PDF)
COFRAIL and Deprescribing Inappropriate PPIs Trials
Presented by: Dr. Achim Mortsiefer and Dr. Kristie Weir
Hosted by: Network of European Researchers in Deprescribing
Date: June 19, 2023
Description: Dr. Achim Mortsiefer presented The COFRAIL Cluster Randomized Trial. Dr. Kristie Weir presents Deprescribing Inappropriate PPIs Trial.
Click here to download slides COFRAIL (PDF)
Clinical outcomes of sedative deprescribing within RedUSe and implications for practice
Presented by: Dr. Daniel Hoyle
Hosted by: Australian Deprescribing Network
Date: March 28, 2023
Description: This session discussed the RedUSe study published in International Psychogeriatrics, with reference to more contemporary literature/clinical guidelines when discussing the implications of the findings. Click here to download slides (PDF)
Initial findings from the iSIMPATHY project and experiences of implementation
Presented by: iSIMPATHY Project Team
Hosted by: European Society of Clinical Pharmacy
Date: Dec 1, 2022
Description: iSIMPATHY (implementing Stimulating Innovation in the Management of Polypharmacy and Adherence Through the Years) is an EU funded partnership between Ireland, Scotland and Northern Ireland delivering person-centred, pharmacist-led medication reviews across primary and secondary care. Click here to download slides (PDF)
The OPTIMIZE Trial: A Clinician’s Reflection on the Challenges of Deprescribing
Presented by: Louise Papillon-Ferland
Hosted by: Canadian Medication Appropriateness and Deprescribing Network
Date: October 5, 2022
Description: This session presented key learnings from the OPTIMIZE trial and discussed enablers and barriers of deprescribing, as applied to real-life clinical cases. Click here to download slides (PDF)