Talking Meds Episode 27: Lessons from the Canadian De-prescribing Network with Lisa McCarthy

Welcome to the latest episode of Talking Meds and the PrescQIPP podcast, engaging conversations about medicines-related dilemmas. Today, your host Jonathan Underhill, Medicines Clinical Adviser at PrescQIPP, talks to Lisa McCarthy about the Canadian experience with person-centred deprescribing.

Lisa is a pharmacist and Associate Professor working with the University of Toronto as well as Trillium Health Partners, one of Canada's largest hospitals.  She has more than 20 years of practice experience across acute, primary, and ambulatory care settings. In her research, she aims to explore the people, processes and resources needed to optimize care models in partnership with those they are intended to serve.

She is Co-Director of the internationally known deprescribing.org team and serves on the executive of the Canadian Medication Appropriateness and Deprescribing Network. She has many collaborations across the world studying prescribing cascades and is also leading a nationally funded study exploring overtreatment of diabetes in Canada's long-term care homes.

Lisa also has her personal time governed by Ozzie (a schnauzer poodle rescue) and 3 pre teen/teens.

In this episode of Talking Meds, Jonathan and Lisa talk about how pharmacy teams work in Canada, what we mean by person-centred deprescribing and medication appropriateness and what networks there are for those interested in getting in touch with others interested in deprescribing. They also discuss the ICOD2026 conference to be held in Montreal, Canada from April 27-29 2026. Time to get your abstracts for oral and poster presenations as well as workshops, panels and seminar in, open from Sept 1 - Oct 15!

PrescQIPP resources mentioned in this episode:

Other resources mentioned in this episode: