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Updated: Sep 24, 2025

Drug Repurposing Hypothesis Generation Using the "RE:fine Drugs" System
Published on: December 11, 2016
Can agent-based simulation be used as a tool to support polypharmacy prescribing practice?
Daniel Chalk1, Sean Manzi1, Nicky Britten1
1NIHR CLAHRC for the South West Peninsula, St Luke’s Campus, University of Exeter Medical School, Exeter, UK.
Objective:
We sought to develop a simulation modelling method to help better understand the complex interplay of factors that lead to people with type 2 diabetes and asthma not taking all of their medication as prescribed when faced with multiple medications (polypharmacy).
Research Design And Methods:
In collaboration with polypharmacy patients, general practitioners, pharmacists and polypharmacy researchers, we developed a map of factors that directly and indirectly affect somebody’s decision to take their medication as prescribed when faced with multiple type 2 diabetes and asthma medications. We then translated these behavioural influences into logical rules using data from the literature and developed a proof-of-concept agent-based simulation model that captures the medicine-taking behaviours of those with type 2 diabetes and asthma taking multiple medications and which predicts both the clinical effectiveness and rates of adherence for different combinations of medications.
Conclusions:
The model we have developed could be used as a prescription support tool or a way of estimating medicine-taking behaviour in cost-effectiveness analyses.
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