Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice最新文献

Introduction: Drive-thru services are not given sufficient focus in the community pharmacy setting which was highlighted during COVID-19, particularly in Malaysia. This study aimed to explore the community pharmacists' perspectives regarding drive-thru community pharmacy service during COVID-19 in Malaysia.

Methods: In-depth online semi-structured individual interviews were conducted among 25 community pharmacists working in Malaysia. All interviews were conducted between March 2022 and May 2022 and were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim, and then analysed by thematic analysis.

Results: Thematic analysis yielded seven major themes, 1-familiarity with drive-thru community pharmacy service during COVID-19, 2-willingness toward this service during COVID-19, 3-perceived benefits toward drive-thru community pharmacy service during COVID-19, 4-perceived disadvantages toward this service, 5-barriers toward drive-thru community pharmacy service, 6-factors affecting the preference toward this service, and 7-facilitators to drive-thru community pharmacy service. Enhancing social distancing and preventing the spread of COVID-19 were the major perceived benefits of this service during COVID-19 as reported by participants.

Conclusion: Overall, community pharmacists reported positive attitudes toward drive-thru community pharmacy service during COVID-19. However, concerns about poor communication between the pharmacist and the patient, limited counselling, and dispensing errors were acknowledged. These concerns would need to be addressed to improve the provision of drive-thru community pharmacy service.

Background: Monotherapy with aromatase inhibitors and fulvestrant were the standard-of-care for hormone receptor-positive (HR+)/human epidermal growth factor receptor-type2 negative (HER2-) advanced breast cancer, before integration of cyclin-dependent kinase 4/6 inhibitors. Effectiveness data is essential for regulatory action, but little is known about real-world use of aromatase inhibitors and fulvestrant.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted resorting to data from a cancer registry to identify adult women with HR+/HER- advanced breast cancer exposed to aromatase inhibitors or fulvestrant (31 May 2017-31 March 2019) at the main oncology hospital in Portugal. Cases were updated with follow-up until death or cut-off (31 March 2021) and pseudoanonymized data extracted. Primary outcome was overall survival (OS) and secondary time to treatment failure (TTF), estimated using survival analysis and compared with published trials.

Results: 192 patients were distributed by subgroups according to the medicine. Letrozole: OS 30.8 (95% confidence interval (CI) 20.6-41.4); TTF 11.2 (95%CI 8.7-13.7). Exemestane: OS 22.1 (95%CI 9.7-34.6); TTF 6.0 (95%CI 4.1-7.8). Fulvestrant: OS 21.6 (95%CI 16.5-26.7); TTF 5.6 (95%CI 4.5-6.6).

Conclusions: Estimated effectiveness (OS) of letrozole and fulvestrant was, respectively, 3.2-3.5 months lower than reported. The clinical meaning seems uncertain and may be explained a higher proportion of worse prognostic characteristics in patients treated in the real-world.

Generative AI can be a powerful research tool, but researchers must employ it ethically and transparently. This commentary addresses how the editors of pharmacy practice journals can identify manuscripts generated by generative AI and AI-assisted technologies. Editors and reviewers must stay well-informed about developments in AI technologies to effectively recognise AI-written papers. Editors should safeguard the reliability of journal publishing and sustain industry standards for pharmacy practice by implementing the crucial strategies outlined in this editorial. Although obstacles, including ignorance, time constraints, and protean AI strategies, might hinder detection efforts, several facilitators can help overcome those obstacles. Pharmacy practice journal editors and reviewers would benefit from educational programmes, collaborations with AI experts, and sophisticated plagiarism-detection techniques geared toward accurately identifying AI-generated text. Academics and practitioners can further uphold the integrity of published research through transparent reporting and ethical standards. Pharmacy practice journal staffs can sustain academic rigour and guarantee the validity of scholarly work by recognising and addressing the relevant barriers and utilising the proper enablers. Navigating the changing world of AI-generated content and preserving standards of excellence in pharmaceutical research and practice requires a proactive strategy of constant learning and community participation.

Background: Access to safe, effective, affordable, and high-quality medications has been included in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations as a crucial step towards attaining universal health coverage. Access to medicines is a fundamental human right. If medicines are accessible and affordable, they save lives by reducing mortality and morbidity associated with acute and chronic diseases. WHO recommends that all countries voluntarily reach the minimum target of 80% availability of medicines by 2025. The primary purpose of this research is to assess access to essential medicines in Juba County, South Sudan.

Methods: This study was undertaken using the standard World Health Organization/Health Action International Organization (WHO/HAI) approach for surveying the prices, availability, and affordability of medicines. A survey was conducted in six payams of Juba County, South Sudan, and 55 health facilities were assessed.

Results: Prices for generic medicines were better in faith-based health facilities with a median price ratio of 1.95. Private pharmacies and private clinics had MPRs of 4.64 and 4.32, respectively. Local prices were high compared to International referent prices. Availability of medicines was highest in the faith-based health facilities (65.5%) and slightly lower in private pharmacies (55.4%), private clinics (57.7%) and public (50.4%) sectors. Most of the surveyed medicines were unaffordable. The medicines needed to treat non-communicable diseases cost up to 33.7-day wages for one full course of treatment.

Conclusions: In South Sudan, medicines are poorly available in all sectors. Medicines are affordable in the public sector but Most medicines are unaffordable in private pharmacies, private clinics and faith-based health facilities. Poor medicines availability in the public sector contributes to the overall unaffordability of medicines in all the other sectors.

Successful Vaccine uptake relies heavily on the effectiveness of vaccination services. Expanding the scope of pharmacists' involvement in vaccination services can significantly improve vaccination coverage. The level of pharmacists' engagement in immunization services varies globally. The aim of this paper is to describe the current role of pharmacists in vaccination services in the Middle Eastern countries. The provision of vaccination services by pharmacists in the region has evolved notably in recent years. The extent of pharmacists' involvement in immunization services varies from one country to another in the region. They play a more active role in the delivery of vaccinations, not only facilitating but also administering vaccines. Future studies on pharmacist-led vaccination services in these countries are necessary to assess the value of the expanded practice of pharmacists in this field, especially due to the scarcity of evidence.

Background: As the needs for home care increase, contact with patients and jobs out of the pharmacy such as the patients' homes have increased, and there is concern that the situation increases pharmacists' work-related stress. Stress deteriorates pharmacists' quality of life (QOL) and affects the quality of services they provide. In this study, we developed a scale for the measurement of stress of pharmacists engaged in home care and evaluated it in pharmacists in 3 prefectures of the Tokai district, Japan.

Methods: Based on the stress factors of pharmacists in home care extracted by previous studies, a 59-item questionnaire was developed. The questionnaires were sent to 1785 pharmacies engaged in home care in 3 prefectures of the Tokai district, and anonymous responses were obtained from 399 (valid response rate: 22.4%). The answers to each question were scored using 5-point scale (1: I feel no stress to 5: I always feel strong stress).

Results: As a result of factor analysis, the Pharmacist's Stress Scale for Home Care (PSS) was prepared with 51 items, i.e., 14 related to the first factor, "difficulty and feeling of incompetence in patient care", 9 related to the second factor, "relationship with superiors and work environment", 13 related to the third factor, "burdens related to work load and work contents", 10 related to the fourth factor, "communication with patients and families", and 5 related to the fifth factor, "communication with other professions". Cronbach's α coefficients for the entire scale and each factor were ≥ 0.833, and sufficient internal consistency was obtained.

Conclusions: The scale developed in this study is considered to be useful for the measurement of stress of pharmacists derived from interpersonal work and home care services. Leaving the job and burnout are expected to be prevented by perceiving the stress level of the pharmacists by themselves using this scale and coping with stress.