BACKGROUND Non-adherence to medicines by patients and suboptimal prescribing by clinicians underpin poor blood pressure (BP) control in hypertension. In this study, a training program was designed to enable community pharmacists to deliver a service in hypertension management targeting therapeutic adjustments and medication adherence. A comprehensive evaluation of the training program was under...

At a March 2012 session in Calgary on legal liability related to expanded scope of practice, numerous pharmacists vehemently criticized the Alberta government for implementing, on July 1, 2012, payment to pharmacists for renewing prescriptions. The pharmacists were not criticizing the amount of the fee but, rather, the fact that they would have to perform the activity (i.e., renew prescriptions...

Background: In Japan, an increasing number of patients are prescribed a large amount of long-term medications by large hospitals that are then dispensed by a community pharmacy. This practice often leads to considerable wastage of medicine. As part of their professional role, community pharmacists are expected to contribute more to the appropriate use of medication by patients. Using a prospect...

OBJECTIVES Antibiotic resistance is a major public health concern and is greatly exacerbated by inappropriate antibiotic use at a community level. The aim of this study was to ascertain which attitudes of community pharmacists were related to inappropriate antibiotic dispensing. METHODS We conducted a cross-sectional study of community pharmacists in a region situated in northern Spain (n = 3...

In India, structured continuous professional development modules are not available to update the knowledge and skills of the practicing community pharmacists. A prospective study was designed to develop, validate and implement continuous professional development modules and to assess the impact of training programme on knowledge and skills of community pharmacists. Modules were developed by ref...

Ginger Lemay, PharmD, CDOE  CommunIty pharmaCIStS are often the first point of contact for patients with health-related and medication questions. The 2007 Wilson Rx Pharmacy Customer Satisfaction Survey reports that the average pharmacy customer visits their pharmacy an average of two to three times per month, which is greater than ten times the number of times they visit their primary care ph...

Recent studies suggest that involving pharmacists is an effective strategy for improving patient adherence and blood pressure (BP) control. To date, few controlled studies have tested the cost-effectiveness of specific models for improving patient adherence and BP control in community pharmacies, where most Americans obtain prescriptions. We hypothesized that a team model of adherence monitorin...

Pharmacy students should have a sufficient level of knowledge, skills, and attitude to practice pharmaceutical care effectively in the routine practice in the community pharmacy. Moreover, the strong cooperation between pharmacists and physicians is strongly needed in the process of providing pharmaceutical care. The aim of the study was to investigate the opinions of students of the Faculty of...

BACKGROUND This trial aims to investigate the effectiveness and cost implications of 'pharmaceutical care' provided by community pharmacists to elderly patients in the community. As the UK government has proposed that by 2004 pharmaceutical care services should extend nationwide, this provides an opportunity to evaluate the effect of pharmaceutical care for the elderly. DESIGN The trial desig...

The UK Department of Health’s aim is to involve community pharmacists in the delivery of alcohol brief intervention (BI). This possibility extends the settings in which BIs have been delivered and has attracted international attention. The objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of BI delivered by community pharmacists in a randomised controlled trial (RCT) in London. A two-arm ...