More than a decade ago, Hepler and Strand1,2 introduced the concept that the therapeutic relationship between pharmacist and patient was an integral component of pharmaceutical care. They saw pharmaceutical care as “a covenantal relationship between a patient and a pharmacist in which the pharmacist performs drug use control functions (with appropriate knowledge and skill) governed by the aware...

Partridge et al. provided an excellent and timely review on patient compliance issues of prescribed oral therapy (1). This important area merits the attention of every oncology clinician, in view of the increasing number of new oral antineoplastic agents. The review would have been more complete, however, if it had pointed out that pharmacist involvement in patient education is essential in ach...

INTRODUCTION Urgent care centers represent a high-volume outpatient setting where antibiotics are prescribed frequently but resources for antimicrobial stewardship may be scarce. In 2015, our pharmacist-led Emergency Department (ED) culture follow-up program was expanded to include two urgent care (UC) sites within the same health system. The UC program is conducted by ED and infectious disease...

BACKGROUND Sitagliptin is recommended for initial and maintenance dosing at 100 mg daily. Downward dose adjustment is recommended in patients with moderate or severe renal insufficiency. OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of the potentially inappropriate initial dosing of sitagliptin based on estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) at baseline for pharmacist versus nonpharmacist prescri...

Background: Self‐medication with over‐the‐counter (OTC) remedies is a common practice in both developed and developing countries; however, inappropriate self‐medication can have adverse effects and may contribute to the emergence of drug‐resistant pathogens. A consultation with pharmacists plays a crucial role in providing efficient professional guidance advice for appropriate use of OTC medici...

UNLABELLED The aim of the study was to use a clinical pharmacist in order to improve the medication of patients in a geriatric hospital unit. The hospital had no experience of using a clinical pharmacist before. METHODS A clinical pharmacist participated in the therapeutic team for 27 days during a 4-year period. Drug-related problems were recorded prospectively and discussed before and at th...

UNLABELLED Open heart surgery is a procedure which warrants patient education about the complexity of drug regimens and lifestyle modifications. Patient nonadherence is likely to have a considerable negative impact on the patients' quality of life post-cardiac surgery. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the impact of pharmacist intervention on patients' adherence to medication and lifestyle changes. MET...

OBJECTIVE To assess the effect of pharmacist interventions on glycemic control in type 2 diabetic patients and to examine factors that could explain the variation across studies. METHODS A comprehensive literature search was performed in PubMed, Scopus, and LILACS databases for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published up to July 2015. The search strategy included the use of MeSH terms or...

Medicines are a major treatment modality for many mental illnesses, and with the growing burden of mental disorders worldwide pharmacists are ideally positioned to play a greater role in supporting people with a mental illness. This narrative review aims to describe the evidence for pharmacist-delivered services in mental health care and address the barriers and facilitators to increasing the u...

We explored the associations between pharmacist-provided anticoagulation management in hospitalized Medicare patients and several major heath care outcomes: death rate, length of stay, Medicare charges, bleeding complications, and transfusions. Using the 1995 National Clinical Pharmacy Services database and the 1995 Medicare database for hospitals, data were retrieved for 717,396 Medicare patie...