Current Issue : April - June Volume : 2017 Issue Number : 2 Articles : 6 Articles
Medication therapy management (MTM) is medical care provided by pharmacists whose aim is to optimize drug therapy and improve therapeutic outcomes for patients. (i) To Implement MTM service at a tertiary care hospital. (ii) Identification of Barriers in Implementation of the program. (iii) Assessment of Outcomes of MTM service. (iv) Follow up of the service, a prospective study was conducted in inpatient departments of Cardiology, General medicine and Nephrology Departments. Patient demographics and drugs prescribed data were collected and analysed. Along with this interaction with the patient were also done whenever required. Collection of patients details like demographics, medical, surgical history, current and past medical history. Comprehensive review of the medications (MTR), preparation of personal medication record (PMR), development of patient focussed medication action plan (MAP) and providing to the patient. Discussion and meeting with other health care professionals about the optimization of therapy. To conclude, it is evident from the present study that, MTM services provided by the pharmacist/student pharmacist suggests the need of clinical pharmacist in every hospital setting to meet the standard criteria in minimizing the risk of medication-related problems and improving the patient health outcome for better quality of life....
Background. A risk factor associated with stroke onset is chronic kidney disease (CKD). To prevent stroke reoccurrence, it is\nnecessary to strictly manage blood pressure, lipids, and plasma glucose. Therefore, some cases are forced to polypharmacy, elderly\npatients in particular. Polypharmacy often leads to adverse drug reactions and has the potential to negatively affect the rehabilitation\nof stroke patients. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of polypharmacy using a functional independence\nmeasure (FIM). Methods. A total of 144 stroke patients with CKD were included in the present analysis. We divided stroke\npatients into those taking six or more drugs (polypharmacy group) and those taking less than six drugs (nonpolypharmacy group)\nupon admission. Patient background features, laboratory data, and FIM scores were compared. Results. FIM-Motor (FIM-M)\nefficiency, age, and diabetes mellitus were positively associated with polypharmacy. FIM-M efficiency in the polypharmacy group\nwas significantly lower than in the nonpolypharmacy group. Conclusion. Polypharmacy interferes with the effect of rehabilitation\nin stroke patients with CKD. Pharmacists and doctors should make efforts to optimize medications to be able to respond to the\noutcome of each patient....
There are many indications in Australia and globally that asthma management is suboptimal. Ideally, patients need to proactively\nself-manage the condition with the support of health professionals. Community pharmacists are a highly accessible resource for\npatients but currently provide inconsistent services. General practitioners also face many barriers to the provision of chronic disease\nmanagement for asthma patients. The aim of this research was to characterise patients with asthma who present to community\npharmacy. The objective was to identify opportunities to develop the role of pharmacists in the context of the primary healthcare\nsetting and in view of the needs of the patients they routinely encounter. The results of a comprehensive survey of 248 patients\nrecruited from community pharmacies indicated there was discordance between patient perceptions of asthma control and actual\nasthma control. Almost half the patients surveyed had poorly controlled asthma, whereas almost three quarters perceived their\nasthma to be well or completely controlled. Fewer than 20% of patients were utilising written asthma action plans, and issues\naround quality use of medicines were identified. The significance of the incongruent perceptions regarding asthma control is that\npatients are unlikely to proactively seek intervention and support from healthcare professionals. Community pharmacists provide a\nsignificant opportunity to address these issues by direct intervention. There is scope to investigate pharmacists preparing written\nasthma action plans for patients, using software to monitor medication adherence and prescribe on-going medication. To maximise\nthe potential of pharmacists, barriers to practice need to be identified and addressed....
With increased development of medical technology (MT), new challenges emerge related\nto education and training of pharmacists and other healthcare specialists. Currently, only a few\nuniversities in the EU promote MT education and research. Objectives: The aim of this study\nwas to evaluate the current status, views on, and need for the education on MT for the pharmacy\nstudents and practicing pharmacists in the Baltic and Nordic countries. Methods: The representatives\nof higher education institutions and community/hospital pharmacists from six Baltic and Nordic\ncountries participated in a qualitative cross-sectional exploratory internet-based study from May\nto October 2014. Results: Approximately two-third of the respondents considered professional\nknowledge about MT products important for pharmacists, but half of them had never participated\nin any MT courses. More practicing pharmacists than representatives of academia underlined the\nneed for increased MT education for pharmacy students in the future. Conclusions: The pharmacists\nin the Baltic and Nordic countries consider the professional knowledge about MT as pertinent in\ntheir education and work. The limited number and status of MT courses available today, however,\nis a major concern among both pharmacy students and practicing pharmacists in these countries.In the future, increasing education combining theory and practice about MT products would be one\npossible solution to overcome this challenge....
Objective: Self-treatment is an important aspect of self-care and one of the vital issues\nunder debate in health care. Self-medication patterns vary among different populations\nand are influenced by many factors. The objective was to investigate the nature\nof self-medication behavior among the general public in the UAE and to explore\npublic attitudes, beliefs, and level of knowledge concerning self-medication. Methods:\nA purposive sample of individuals involved in self-medication who belong to\ndifferent age, gender, income, education level and health-seeking behaviors. A qualitative\napproach through individual face-to-face interviews was utilized to investigate\nparticipants� behaviors and attitudes towards self-medication; factors influencing\ndecision to self medicate, sources of information on medications, types of conditions\nfor which self-medication is sought and types of medications used. Participant\nrecruitment continued until theme saturation using content analysis. Findings:\nThree themes emerged from the data: Reasons for self-medication such as costs associated\nwith visiting a doctor, convenience in visiting a pharmacy and perception of\nsimplicity of the condition; Sources of information: pharmacists as a main source in\naddition to medication leaflets, family role and previous use, and medicines and medicines�\nuse: medicines� use in chronic disease, use of antibiotics, use of herbals and\nsupplements and medicines� use in children. Conclusion: Findings from this study\nindicate that self-medication behaviors are common among the population due to\nseveral reasons. Inappropriate self-medication practices are evident and may compromise\npatient care outcomes. Pharmacists play a vital role in intervening to optimize\nthe use of medications and patient education regarding self-care....
A prospective study was conducted in a tertiary care teaching hospital at Palakkad to identify and evaluate the prescription pattern of drugs among stroke patients and find out the supportive therapeutic agents in stroke. Collected data with the help of data collection form from general medicine department through daily ward rounds and analysed the prescribing pattern of drugs. Also focussed on the drugs that were given for treatment of the post stroke complication and risk factors. All the stroke cases were included in the study and the patients with CKD and cancer are excluded. Totally 211 subjects were enrolled in our study, from that 85.78% of patients prescribed with lipid lowering agents and 81.99% to antiplatelet agents. On the basis of antibiotic monotherapy 46.38% received ceftriaxone and 14.49% received cefixim. In case of combination antibiotics 41.38% of them prescribed with cephalosporins and pencillin combination. Mostly prescribed neuroprotective agent was citicoline 56.40%. Certain antipsychiatric drugs also prescribed for stroke patients to prevent the complications, 34.42% of patients prescribed with alprazolam and 13.11% haloperidol. In case of memantine based therapy it reduces the hospital length of stay about 5 days and ceftriaxone reduce it about 6 days. Mostly prescribed drugs are lipid lowering agents and antiplatelet agents. To reduce the neuronal injury citicoline and antiglutaminergic agent such as memantine were given. Antibiotics prescribed to reduce the post stroke complications....
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