OBJECTIVES Despite the introduction of new oral anticoagulants, vitamin K antagonists remain the mainstay of the prevention and treatment of thromboembolism. The advent of affordable point-of-care testing presents an opportunity for community pharmacists to provide anticoagulation management services, better utilizing their training, reducing the workload on medical practices and improving acce...

Education on optimal medication use is an essential strategy to improve asthma control. The current authors investigated whether pharmacist interventions, focused on appropriate use of asthma medication and tailor-made to the patient's current asthma control, would improve asthma control in adult patients. A 6-month randomised, controlled, parallel-group trial was conducted in 66 community phar...

Fragmentation of the healthcare system and lack of connectivity between in-hospital and community services, have posed an impact on management of patients with chronic conditions. As self-management is an essential component in chronic disease management model and pharmacists are underutilized in Hong Kong, this study developed a consensus-based policy framework on pharmacist-led self-managemen...

The National Community Pharmacists Association (“NCPA”) welcomes and appreciates this opportunity to provide input and suggestions regarding the impact that consolidation within the health care industry is having on the cost of private health insurance, Medicare spending and beneficiary costs. NCPA represents the pharmacist owners, managers and employees of more than 23,000 independent communit...

www.pharmacypractice.org (ISSN: 1886-3655) 3 ABSTRACT Background: Headache, or cephalalgia, is one of the 20 most disabling diseases in the world and affects a large portion of the world’s population. People generally use over-the-counter medications to treat headaches and other minor symptoms. A pharmacist should help patients choose the most effective, safe, and convenient pharmacotherapeutic...

INTRODUCTION Older people often use medications with anticholinergic or sedative side effects which increase the risk of falling and worsen cognitive impairment. The Drug Burden Index (DBI) is a measure of the burden of anticholinergic and sedative medications. Medication reviews are typically done by a pharmacist in collaboration with a general practitioner to optimise the medication use and r...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study is to determine the results of pharmacist interventions on patient's adherence to drugs in community settings. SUBJECTS AND METHODS The study was designed using a standard EQ-SDQ questionnaire and a Culig questionnaire about the adherence to drug. General Level Framework (GLF) was used as a tool for competence assessment among community pharmacists. Participan...

AIMS Few well-designed randomized controlled trials have been conducted regarding the impact of community pharmacist interventions on pharmacotherapeutic monitoring of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We assessed the effectiveness of a pharmaceutical care programme for patients with COPD. METHODS The pharmaceutical care for patients with COPD (PHARMACOP) trial is a ...

BACKGROUND In the Netherlands, 5.6 % of acute hospital admissions are medication-related. Almost half of these admissions are potentially preventable. Reviewing medication in patients at risk in primary care might prevent these hospital admissions. At present, implementation of medication reviews in primary care is suboptimal: pharmacists lack access to patient information, pharmacists are shor...

OBJECTIVES To operationalise the concept of 'advanced practice roles' in pharmacy within the new integrated regionalised palliative care service model outlined in the Palliative Care Services Plan 2009-2016, SA Health. METHODS A working group was established under the auspices of the Palliative Care Clinical Network to progress the development of advanced practice pharmacist roles for regiona...