Current Issue : October - December Volume : 2012 Issue Number : 4 Articles : 7 Articles
Main aim of Regulatory affairs in pharmaceutical industry is to protect human health. The purpose of drug is to diagnose, prevent or treat diseases or ailments in humans, they are products intimately linked with the advances in research and regulation. People and government spent money on drugs because of the role they can play in saving lives, restoring health, preventing diseases and stopping epidemics. But, in order to do so, drug must be safe, effective and of good quality. The primary components should be regulated by Drug Regulatory Agencies like, product registration, regulation of drug manufacturing, importation and distribution, regulation of drug promotion and information. The pharmaceutical industry, while pursuing an international market, is obliged to comply with national regulations. So, in this review article, an overview of few drug regulatory agencies: India, Europe, Japan, US is covered....
The aim of the study is to assess and evaluate the prevalence of polypharmacy among the community pharmacy setup in urban population. Information pertaining to the age, sex, education levels, social habits, drug prescribing patterns, disease conditions pertaining to polypharmacy and intervariable factors of different diseases were collected. The study includes 103 patients, among which 72 (69.90%) were male and 31 (30.10%) were female. The prevalence of polypharmacy in our study was higher in male population 72 (69.90%) and the major fraction of the patients were in the age of 19-45 years (64.07%). The literacy rate observed in the urban population was 89.31%. The major polypharmacy was observed in 4 drug regimen prescriptions of patients (40.77%) and hypertension 15(14.56%) followed by diabetes 15(14.56%) and muscular cramps 12(11.65%) were the most common ailments. Intervariable factors were observed in our study as 27 (26.21%) in chronic diseases and 22 (21.35%) in acute diseases. Polypharmacy was a frequent condition in urban population and the most important predictor for the polypharmacy was the type of disease treated. Polypharmacy can be avoided by sharing the decisions with pharmacist for making the treatment goals and plan. The goal should be to prescribe the least possible complex drug regimen for the patient, while considering the symptoms, medication problems and of course cost of the therapy....
Background: An increased interest is observed in broadening community pharmacists� role in public health. To\r\ndate, little information has been gathered in Canada on community pharmacists� perceptions of their role in health\r\npromotion and prevention; however, such data are essential to the development of public-health programs in\r\ncommunity pharmacy. A cross-sectional study was therefore conducted to explore the perceptions of community\r\npharmacists in urban and semi-urban areas regarding their ideal and actual levels of involvement in providing\r\nhealth-promotion and prevention services and the barriers to such involvement.\r\nMethods: Using a five-step modified Dillman�s tailored design method, a questionnaire with 28 multiple-choice or\r\nopen-ended questions (11 pages plus a cover letter) was mailed to a random sample of 1,250 pharmacists out of 1,887\r\ncommunity pharmacists practicing in Montreal (Quebec, Canada) and surrounding areas. It included questions on\r\npharmacists� ideal level of involvement in providing health-promotion and preventive services; which services were\r\nactually offered in their pharmacy, the employees involved, the frequency, and duration of the services; the barriers to\r\nthe provision of these services in community pharmacy; their opinion regarding the most appropriate health\r\nprofessionals to provide them; and the characteristics of pharmacists, pharmacies and their clientele.\r\nResults: In all, 571 out of 1,234 (46.3%) eligible community pharmacists completed and returned the questionnaire.\r\nMost believed they should be very involved in health promotion and prevention, particularly in smoking cessation\r\n(84.3%); screening for hypertension (81.8%), diabetes (76.0%) and dyslipidemia (56.9%); and sexual health (61.7% to\r\n89.1%); however, fewer respondents reported actually being very involved in providing such services (5.7% [lifestyle,\r\nincluding smoking cessation], 44.5%, 34.8%, 6.5% and 19.3%, respectively). The main barriers to the provision of\r\nthese services in current practice were lack of: time (86.1%), coordination with other health care professionals\r\n(61.1%), staff or resources (57.2%), financial compensation (50.8%), and clinical tools (45.5%).\r\nConclusions: Although community pharmacists think they should play a significant role in health promotion and\r\nprevention, they recognize a wide gap between their ideal and actual levels of involvement. The efficient\r\nintegration of primary-care pharmacists and pharmacies into public health cannot be envisioned without\r\naddressing important organizational barriers....
Services and dynamic activities of hospital pharmacy are affecting public health and welfare. Outpatient pharmacy is a section of hospital pharmacy department that is required to provide the following scope of services and activities to hospital customers:\r\n\r\n1. Delivery of medication-related services to outpatients and health care providers working within hospital premises\r\n\r\n2. Dispensing of home care medications\r\n\r\n3. Generation of invoices for payment according to agreed payment systems\r\n\r\n4. Medication reconciliation\r\n\r\n5. Patient and family Education\r\n\r\n6. Counseling patients on related medication regimens\r\n\r\n7. Offering retail sale of health-related materials\r\n\r\n8. Handling and managing patients excess or old medications\r\n\r\n9. Home medication review\r\n\r\n10. Documentation of daily pharmacy practice\r\n\r\nQuality of pharmacy services is surely influenced by organization priorities, targets and leadership commitments [1]. Relentless efforts have been made through last decades to gain patients and healthcare organizations satisfaction regarding patients waiting time, effective counseling and reduction of medication errors without a noticeable success. A breakthrough innovation in dispensing system is needed to overcome this nagging issue in a reliable and comprehensive fashion. The above mentioned services are regarded as a prerequisite to improve quality, work flow and promote customerââ?¬â?¢s satisfaction and this can be achieved through three basic elements including:\r\n\r\n1. Adaptive design\r\n\r\n2. Qualified and well trained staff\r\n\r\n3. An effective process\r\n\r\nThe mission is to provide a pharmacy service that is able to achieve ââ?¬Å?improved health and well-being, best quality of care and value for all stakeholdersââ?¬Â. The innovation in dispensing system is optimistically targeted to achieve this mission and keeps extended open venues for improvement in pharmacy performance....
Background: The increasing involvement of pharmacists in public health will require changes in the behaviour of\r\nboth pharmacists and the general public. A great deal of research has shown that attitudes and beliefs are\r\nimportant determinants of behaviour. This review aims to examine the beliefs and attitudes of pharmacists and\r\nconsumers towards pharmaceutical public health in order to inform how best to support and improve this service.\r\nMethods: Five electronic databases were searched for articles published in English between 2001 and 2010. Titles\r\nand abstracts were screened by one researcher according to the inclusion criteria. Papers were included if they\r\nassessed pharmacy staff or consumer attitudes towards pharmaceutical public health. Full papers identified for\r\ninclusion were assessed by a second researcher and data were extracted by one researcher.\r\nResults: From the 5628 papers identified, 63 studies in 67 papers were included. Pharmacy staff: Most pharmacists\r\nviewed public health services as important and part of their role but secondary to medicine related roles.\r\nPharmacists� confidence in providing public health services was on the whole average to low. Time was consistently\r\nidentified as a barrier to providing public health services. Lack of an adequate counselling space, lack of demand and\r\nexpectation of a negative reaction from customers were also reported by some pharmacists as barriers. A need for\r\nfurther training was identified in relation to a number of public health services. Consumers: Most pharmacy users had\r\nnever been offered public health services by their pharmacist and did not expect to be offered. Consumers viewed\r\npharmacists as appropriate providers of public health advice but had mixed views on the pharmacists� ability to do\r\nthis. Satisfaction was found to be high in those that had experienced pharmaceutical public health\r\nConclusions: There has been little change in customer and pharmacist attitudes since reviews conducted nearly\r\n10 years previously. In order to improve the public health services provided in community pharmacy, training must\r\naim to increase pharmacists� confidence in providing these services. Confident, well trained pharmacists should be\r\nable to offer public health service more proactively which is likely to have a positive impact on customer attitudes\r\nand health....
Intensive care unit infection- prevalence, incidence Patients in intensive care units (ICU s) has a higher risk of acquiring hospital associated infections than those in non-critical areas. The preventive measures that can be taken by hospitals include: Equipment sterilization, Washing and proper sanitation, Thorough hand washing, gloving, use of alcohol rubs by all medical personnel before and after each patient contact, Wearing apron during patient care reduces risk of infection, More careful use of antimicrobial agents such as antibiotics. Doripenem can be used for Bacterial infections as: complex abdominal infections, pneumonia within the setting of a hospital, Complicated infections of the urinary tract including kidney infections with septicemia....
Background: In the last decades, the provision of pharmaceutical care by community pharmacists has developed\r\nin OECD countries. These developments involved significant changes in professional practices and organization of\r\nprimary care. In France, they have recently been encouraged by a new legal framework and favored by an\r\nincreasing demand for health care (increase in the number of patients with chronic diseases) and reductions in\r\nservices being offered (reduction in the number of general practitioners and huge regional disparities).\r\nObjectives: This study aimed to investigate final-year pharmacy studentsââ?¬â?¢ opinions on 1/expanding the scope of\r\npharmacistsââ?¬â?¢ practices and 2/the potential barriers for the implementation of pharmaceutical care. We discussed\r\nthese in the light of the experiences of pharmacists in Quebec, and other countries in Europe (United Kingdom\r\nand the Netherlands).\r\nMethods: All final-year students in pharmaceutical studies, preparing to become community pharmacists, at the\r\nUniversity Paris-Descartes in Paris during 2010 (n = 146) were recruited. All of them were interviewed by means of\r\na questionnaire describing nine ââ?¬Å?professionalââ?¬Â practices by pharmacists, arranged in four dimensions: (1) screening\r\nand chronic disease management, (2) medication surveillance, (3) pharmacy-prescribed medication and (4)\r\nparticipation in health care networks. Respondents were asked (1) how positively they view the extension of their\r\ncurrent practices, using a 5 point Likert scale and (2) their perception of potential professional, technical,\r\norganizational and/or financial obstacles to developing these practices.\r\nResults: 143 (97.9%) students completed the questionnaire. Most of practices studied received a greater than 80%\r\napproval rating, although only a third of respondents were in favor of the sales of over-the-counter (OTC) drugs.\r\nThe most significant perceived barriers were working time, remuneration and organizational problems, specifically\r\nthe need to create a physical location for consultations to respect patientsââ?¬â?¢ privacy within a pharmacy.\r\nConclusions: Despite remaining barriers to cross, this study showed that future French pharmacists were keen to\r\ndevelop their role in patient care, beyond the traditional role of dispensing. However, the willingness of doctors\r\nand patients to consent should be investigated and also rigorous studies to support or refute the positive impact\r\nof pharmaceutical care on the quality of care should be carried out....
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