Scope of international hospital pharmacy practice.

OBJECTIVE To review the published English literature regarding international hospital pharmacy practice. DATA SOURCES A computer search of all English-language articles in MEDLINE (1966-June 2004) and other Internet sources and International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (1971-June 2004). STUDY SELECTION AND DATA EXTRACTION All studies that discussed hospital pharmacy or clinical hospital pharmacy activities outside of the US were considered for inclusion. DATA SYNTHESIS The scope of international hospital pharmacy practice is quite varied, both inter- and intra-country, and varying degrees of specialization exist. Although clinical pharmacy is well developed in some countries, it is still in infancy stages in others. In addition, there is disparity in the actual definition of clinical pharmacy throughout the world. CONCLUSIONS Since very few data have been published regarding hospital pharmacy practice on an international scale, we suggest a survey be conducted to objectively capture this information and increase awareness of clinical pharmacy in this setting.