Introduction: Invasive fungal infections (IFI) can contribute to increased mortality and morbidity rates after heart transplant in adults. The most common causes are Aspergillus and Candida species. There is uncertainty on how effective antifungal prophylaxis is against Candida spp infections and limited guidance on the prevention of Aspergillus spp infections. This systematic review and meta-analysis will assess the literature to see if antifungal prophylaxis reduces the incidence of IFI after heart transplant in adults.
Methods and analysis: This systematic review protocol follows the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta Analysis guidelines. A systematic search of the Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Scopus, Embase, MEDLINE, and Proquest databases will be undertaken. Reference lists of retrieved publications and conference abstracts will also be searched. Title, abstract and full-text screening will be undertaken by two reviewers. Discrepancies will be resolved by a third reviewer. Studies with paediatric patients, multi-organ transplants, or patients with a second heart transplant will be excluded, along with those who do not have clear definitions and diagnostic criteria for IFI. Risk of bias will be assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias 2 tool and the Risk of Bias in Non-randomised Studies of Interventions tool. A meta-analysis will be carried out, but if studies are not deemed to be sufficiently similar, only a narrative synthesis will be undertaken.
Ethics and dissemination: Ethical approval is not required for this systematic review as primary data will not be collected. The results of the review will be disseminated through publication in an academic journal and scientific conferences.
Prospero registration number: CRD42024516588.
Objectives: In the Danish healthcare system, restructuring is an ongoing process to accommodate the rising number of patients and to optimise resource allocation. To ease departmental burdens at hospitals in the North Denmark Region, outpatients are empowered to collect their cost-free medicines from medication pick-up lockers. The lockers function similarly to a package box, thereby enhancing patient freedom. Due to lack of evidence within the published literature regarding cost-free medicines and medicine waste, the aim of our study was to identify the common medications delivered to medicine pick-up lockers and secondly, to evaluate potential medicine waste.
Methods: Data from ApoVision provided insights into medications delivered to medicine pick-up lockers from March to October 2023 in the North Denmark Region. To estimate unused medicines we obtained data on the number of medications returned from medicine pick-up lockers.
Results: From 2020 to 2023, the number of patients receiving cost-free medicines at medication pick-up lockers increased. In total, approximately 30 000 packages of medicine were delivered to medicine pick-up lockers from March to October 2023 in the North Denmark Region; 1.7% were returned. Methotrexate, adalimumab, and omalizumab were among the most common deliveries and were also the three most returned from the medicine pick-up lockers.
Conclusions: This study is an initial attempt to investigate potential medicine waste in cost-free medicines dispensed to outpatients via pick-up lockers. Antineoplastic and immunomodulating agents were the most common medicines delivered to medication pick-up lockers in the North Denmark Region from March to October 2023. In this period, approximately 2% of all delivered medicine packages were returned to the hospital pharmacy. Our analysis solely focuses on waste associated with medications left uncollected from medicine pick-up lockers. Addressing the impact of medicine waste in a hospital setting requires a comprehensive approach, thus future studies should also focus on other sites relevant for medication waste as, for example, the patient's household.
Objective: Elective surgery suffered significant loss of capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic. To address this, hip and knee arthroplasties are being conducted as day case procedures. Pre-admission pharmacist consultations were introduced (the intervention) for these patients. This consultation aimed to address perioperative medicines issues, promote patient empowerment, improve prescribing quality and contribute to reduction in length of stay (LoS).
Methods: All patients listed for a total/unicompartmental knee replacement (TKR/UKR) or total hip replacement (THR) at an ambulatory care hospital were identified by a pharmacist prescriber 1-2 weeks before the operation. Pharmacist consultations were conducted remotely with discharge prescriptions written electronically and dispensed before admission. Prescribing data were collected for both pre-intervention (n=80) and post-intervention (n=129) groups along with all interventions undertaken during consultations. Staff opinion was sought via online questionnaire and patient opinion was gathered via post-discharge telephone calls.
Results: A total of 115 interventions took place during 129 patient consultations and >75% of interventions were of a significance expected to improve patient care. Prescribing standards were improved in the intervention group compared with patients whose arthroplasty was before the introduction of this service. The pharmacy service would have produced a different prescription in 38.8% of the pre-intervention group. Staff and patient feedback was extremely positive and all patients with previous surgical experience in the health board reported an improved experience. There was a statistically significant reduction in post-discharge healthcare encounters (such as general practitioner (GP) visits) in the intervention group.
Conclusion: This novel remote preoperative pharmacist consultation improved prescribing standards, enhanced the patient's surgical experience and reduced the burden on post-discharge healthcare systems.
Background: Dose banding (DB) was used to optimise the individualisation of patient treatments with gemcitabine (Gem) in order to improve workload planning at the pharmacy of the University Hospital Centre of Besançon (UHCB). A new simple and fast high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method was also developed for the quantification of Gem without dilution of the infusion bags.
Methods: Individual doses of Gem preparations were retrospectively analysed over a 1-year period to determine the frequency of prepared doses. Using a maximum gap of 7.5% around the doses chosen, the selected Gem standard doses were 1400 mg, 1600 mg, 1800 mg and 2000 mg. Following the DB scheme, the frequency of prescription of standard and individualised Gem doses was analysed over a period of 10 months. The four selected Gem standard doses were aseptically prepared in polyolefin infusion bags. Each series of 20 bags was stocked under refrigerated storage conditions (4°C) for up to 84 days. The quantification of Gem without dilution of the infusion bags was obtained by the development of a HPLC method coupled to a diode array detector (DAD) or an evaporative light scattering detector (ELSD).
Results: During the 10-month period following implementation of the DB, 75.6% of the 1266 prescribed doses were covered by the four standardised preparations. The number of different Gem doses was reduced from 183 to 55. Concerning the Gem quantification, both heteroscedasticity and non-linearity were observed with DAD. Using an ELSD, the trueness values were between 98.59% and 101.52% with excellent repeatability values between 0.66% and 1.42%.
Conclusion: A new HPLC method has been developed for the quantification of Gem without dilution of the infusion bags prepared in advance as a result of a target DB scheme successfully implemented in our pharmacy department.
Objectives: Given the positive impact of appropriate medication management on graft outcome and therefore of patient survival and graft function, the pharmacist's role in the kidney transplantation team has evolved over recent decades. The primary objective of this study was to determine whether pharmacist-led intervention after kidney transplantation is associated with a lower graft rejection rate and intra-patient variation in tacrolimus trough concentrations (Cmin). The study's secondary objective was to develop a questionnaire to identify patients at risk for highly variable Cmin.
Methods: We retrospectively analysed kidney transplant recipients at Rennes University Hospital (France) between January 2013 and December 2020. Patients who received pharmacist-led education (intervention group, n=139) were compared with patients who did not (control group, n=131), according to graft survival at 1 year post-transplant, coefficient of variation (%CV) for the tacrolimus Cmin, age, sex, length of hospital stay post-transplantation, body mass index, and Charlson Comorbidity Index. In the intervention group, a questionnaire assessing patient knowledge was introduced to compare scores with the %CV.
Results: In the intervention group, 1 year post-transplant graft survival was higher (95.7% vs 88.5%, p=0.0289) and patients had fewer variabilities in Cmin. The %CV was correlated with questionnaire scores (r=-0.9758, p<0.0001).
Conclusions: Pharmacist-led interventions may have contributed to improved graft survival and patient management of immunosuppressants. Because %CV correlates with the patient questionnaire score, its introduction could be useful in identifying kidney transplant patients who would benefit most from a pharmacist-led patient education.
Introduction: When methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is the causative pathogen in pneumonia, in-hospital mortality rate is approximately 31.2%. However, the occurrence of MRSA pneumonia is uncommon, with a reported incidence of approximately 4.2%. Vancomycin is often empirically used for MRSA pneumonia coverage, but can lead to serious harm. The purpose of this study was to measure the impact of a pharmacy-driven MRSA nares testing protocol on vancomycin and linezolid prescribing patterns and clinical outcomes in patients diagnosed with pneumonia after removal of immediate educational intervention.
Methods: This single-centre, quasi-experimental study evaluated the use of a MRSA nasal swab on patients diagnosed with community-acquired pneumonia, hospital-acquired pneumonia and ventilator-associated pneumonia. This study consisted of three phases, the preimplementation phase, the active/educational phase and the postimplementation phase. The primary outcome was intravenous anti-MRSA antibiotic duration of therapy. Secondary outcomes included the occurrence of acute kidney injury, duration of hospital stay, number of vancomycin levels obtained, the number of MRSA nares swabs ordered and time points in the MRSA nares collection process.
Results: The preimplementation phase (n=39), the active phase (n=45) and the postimplementation phase (n=26) demonstrated similar baseline characteristics. The primary outcome for duration of anti-MRSA therapy 0-72 hours was 61.5% vs 77.8% vs 76.9% (p=0.19). Acute kidney injury was decreased throughout the study at 25.6%, 24.4% and 16.7% (p=0.32). The number of MRSA nares swabs ordered were 23.1%, 60% and 30.8% in each of the phases, respectively (p=0.49).
Discussion: Our novel approach to measuring the impact of pharmacist education and ordering of MRSA nasal swabs has demonstrated benefits that were sustained for a short period after the intervention was removed. Additional study is required to determine the long-term impact.
Conclusion: The implementation of a hospital-wide anti-MRSA protocol in patients with confirmed or suspected pneumonia indicated sustained changes for at least 3 months after direct intervention.
Background: In July 2019, the Heads of Medicines Agencies/European Medicines Agency (HMA/EMA) Task Force on Availability of Authorised Medicines for Human and Veterinary Use (TFAAM) published good practice guidance which provides key principles for European Union (EU) regulatory authorities for communication on shortages and availability issues. The use of a shortage catalogue was a key recommendation.
Objectives: To assess how EU/European Economic Area (EEA) national competent authorities have implemented the recommendations of the good practice guidance.
Methods: A survey was run in 2020 among EU/EEA national competent authorities to assess communication practices. The results were compared with those of a similar survey carried out 2 years earlier, before publication of the guidance. The survey covered human medicines only and was sent to 31 authorities: one per EU/EEA member state (and two to Germany's two medicines regulatory authorities).
Results: In 2020, 81% of authorities (25/31) had a dedicated public shortage catalogue on their website. This was an increase from 74% (23/31) in 2018, when a similar survey was run. In future this is expected to increase to 87% with two more member states making plans to implement catalogues. Although many member states publish information on shortages there is still selection in terms of the details that are being published, and there is further scope to extend the information currently provided.
Conclusion: Since publication of the EMA/HMA good practice guide in 2019, transparency has increased across the EU/EEA, and public catalogues of shortages are now a routine tool used by many medicines agencies.Further opportunities to improve transparency on supply issues lie ahead with the EMA network strategy to 2025, the revised EU pharmaceutical legislation and the new legal mandate reinforcing the role of the EMA.
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