When you are sick, you might lose too much water (get dehydrated) or have low blood sugar. This can lead to serious problems, like hurting your kidneys or needing to go to the hospital. Sick Day Medication Guidance gives you advice on what to do with your medicines when you are sick. It tells you which medicines to stop taking until you feel better. These tips can help keep you safe and avoid getting problems from your medicines. Only people taking certain medicines need to follow these rules.

People who take certain medications for diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease or high blood pressure should follow Sick Day Medication Guidance. The types of medications include:

• Diabetes or blood sugar control pills
• Some heart, kidney and blood pressure pills
• Water pills
• Anti-inflammatory pain medicines

No. You should not stop all your medications if you're sick. Only some medicines qualify for Sick Day Guidance.

If you are not sure which medications you should temporarily stop, refer to your educational handout, PAUSE App or contact your pharmacy, family doctor or other health care provider.

You are participating in the newest phase of the PAUSE Initiative. The PAUSE Initiative consists of the PAUSE App and educational resources for you and your pharmacy team. The aim of this initiative is to determine if the intervention, the PAUSE App and education, is feasible or successful for a larger trial, and to collect feedback to improve the usability of the PAUSE Initiative resources.

PAUSE stands for: 'Preventing medication complications during AcUte illness through Symptom Evaluation and sick day guidance'

As a participant, you will need to participate for approximately 3 months. Based on the pharmacy you regularly visit, you will have received a Sick Day Medication Guidance educational handout and maybe the PAUSE App. We ask that you interact with the materials you've received to learn about how to manage your medications when you get sick. If you do come down with an illness, you can use your handout and/or PAUSE App to assist with your medication management.

You will be asked to answer online surveys (on the secure REDCap website) to provide researchers with information about yourself, your health and your experience participating in the initiative.

Towards the end of the 3 months of participation, you will be asked to complete a Simulated Sick Day Scenario evaluation. This will test how well you can manage medications when you are sick. Some people participating will be asked to participate in an interview to discuss your experience in the initiative. Not everyone will be asked to participate.

The Sick Day Scenario Simulation consists of a scenario where you pretend you are having a sick day and you will be asked questions on how you would take your medicines IF you were sick. Because we can't predict when you will come down with an illness, we will use a simulation to assess how the interventions can help with Sick Day Medication Guidance. The Sick Day Scenario Simulation is a mock scenario only. Please do not actually stop taking any of your medicines because of the Sick Day Scenario Simulation.

You will be given a $25.00CAD e-gift card of your choice from The Everything Card. You will not receive any reimbursement for incurred expenses related to your pharmacy visits (like parking or transportation).

The PAUSE App has been integrated into the PC Health App. Its purpose is to help determine when you should temporarily stop taking certain medications when you are sick, when to restart medications and when to seek further help from a healthcare provider or Urgent Care. The PAUSE App will give you personalized advice based on the types of medicine you take.

You may not have received the PAUSE App because your pharmacy was not randomized to the App Plus Handout group. Of the participating pharmacies, we randomly allocated half (50%) to provide patients with the PAUSE App plus the patient educational handout and half (50%) to provide patients with the handout only. This will help us determine if the PAUSE App is more helpful than the educational handout alone.

If the initiative results are favorable, we may offer the PAUSE App to all participants.

If your PAUSE App isn't working, please contact pause@ucalgary.ca.

For technical support, please contact pause@ucalgary.ca.

If you have questions about Sick Day Medication Guidance or about your health or medications, you can contact your pharmacy or other healthcare provider.

If you have questions about participating in the PAUSE Initiative, you can contact our team by emailing pause@ucalgary.ca.

If you are not feeling well, you should refer to your educational material and/or PAUSE App, contact your pharmacy or healthcare provider, or call 811 to speak with a nursing professional.

If this is an emergency, call 911 or visit an Urgent Care or emergency department.

Urgently contact a healthcare provider, call 811 to speak with a nursing professional, or call 911 if it is an emergency.