Future healthcare journal最新文献

This article is a patient view of how the future pharmacy could play a key role in devolving routine care for minor ailments and management of long-term conditions. As someone with three long-term conditions, I see an expanded role for pharmacies in supporting me to manage them effectively, filling a major gap: someone to see me and my medications regimen as a whole. A comprehensive national future pharmacies transformation programme is key to NHS sustainability. It must be fully funded, well planned and well executed.

Across the country, pharmacists are developing their professional competencies to move outside the dispensary and directly integrate with specialist teams. Within dermatology, the widespread use of high-cost and high-risk pharmacological interventions presents a range of opportunities for a pharmacist to contribute to safer, more cost-effective use of medicines. As well as using prescribing qualifications to take on clinical workloads, pharmacists can enact cost-saving changes to routine prescribing; improve clinical governance and use their expertise in medicines to effectively advocate for access to new or alternative treatment options, as well as demystify complex funding pathways.

Pharmacy practice in the United States has evolved, transitioning from simple dispensing to complex compounding and medication management. Pharmacists play important roles across many sectors, including clinical care, pharmaceutical industry, insurance companies, and public health. Pharmacists optimize therapy, improve patient outcomes, and reduce healthcare costs. However, the profession faces challenges such as burnout, understaffing and declining insurance reimbursements, particularly in independent pharmacies. Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) have exacerbated these issues, controlling drug prices and reducing pharmacy profitability through opaque pricing and monopolistic practices. Recent legislative efforts in states like New York have aimed to curb PBM influence, however issues persist, and nationwide legislation is lacking. The future of pharmacy depends on addressing these challenges through unified lobbying and proactive reform. Despite these hurdles, scope of practice and innovation within the field continues to grow, offering hope for a revitalized pharmacy landscape.

The discussion surrounding the ethics of mandatory HPV vaccination for young adolescents aged 12-13 is complex. The human papillomavirus (HPV) is a prevalent sexually transmitted infection with certain strains linked to cervical and other types of cancers. While screening and behavioural interventions play important roles in prevention, vaccination has been shown to provide superior protection, thus reducing the incidence of HPV-related diseases by up to 90%. The effectiveness of the HPV vaccine, particularly Gardasil9, has led to discussions about making vaccination mandatory to improve public health outcomes. However, this raises ethical concerns about parental rights, individual autonomy and the implications of mandating vaccination in the context of sexual behaviour. This paper explores the ethical implications of a mandatory HPV vaccination programme, focusing on the ethical concerns of parental rights, gender equity and socioeconomic disparities. Additionally, the paper considers barriers to vaccination uptake and emphasises the importance of education and informed consent. It will be further discussed that while mandatory vaccination could lead to substantial public health benefits, it must be balanced by respecting individual freedoms and be accompanied by education campaigns. Ultimately, the ethical justification for mandatory HPV vaccination lies in its potential to prevent significant harm and promote health equity across populations.

Physician associates (PAs) are a developing profession in the UK. The Faculty of Physician Associates (FPA) recommends the establishment of local preceptorship programmes for PAs in the first year of practice who have successfully passed the PA national exam. Limited evidence currently exists around the evaluation of such local programmes and the experience of the intern PAs involved. Over the course of a 12-month period, four intern PAs completed a structured preceptorship comprising clinical supervision, teaching and mentoring. Upon completion of this programme, qualitative data were recorded and analysed to influence the development of the preceptorship in future. In conclusion, a structured preceptorship has been shown to be a useful method of improving clinician confidence and competence while offering a supported working environment for newly qualified PAs.

This paper examines how social prescribing could be implemented across urgent and emergency care (UEC) systems by examining potentially viable referral pathways and the salient challenges and barriers to implementation. In doing so, we consider a range of services involved in the broader UEC system to include emergency departments, emergency medical (ambulance) services, out-of-hours general practitioners, telephony-based urgent care, urgent treatment centres, and community pharmacy. This paper aims to encourage further debate on this topic, including around the nuances of UEC services that may influence implementation of social prescribing.