OBJECTIVE To suggest revisions to the Thai pharmacy competency standards and determine the perceptions of Thai pharmacy practitioners and faculty about the proposed pharmacy competency standards. METHODS The current competency standards were revised by brainstorming session with nine Thai pharmacy experts according to their perceptions of society's pharmacy needs. The revised standards were p...

The controversy surrounding the different interpretations on the integrality of therapeutic and pharmaceutical care has led to the delimitation of its scope by a law, but the issue has not been completely pacified. As a contribution to this debate, we aim to discuss the challenges to ensure the integrality of the therapeutic and pharmaceutical care, based on a conceptual approach on the meaning...

Pharmacists are expected to deliver pharmaceutical care, that is, to accept responsibility for patients' well-being by ensuring optimum outcomes of drug therapy. Therefore, their performance must be evaluated based on this expectation. The template should be a useful tool for assessing the extent to which clinical pharmacists' performance meets predefined practice standards. Its adaptability wi...

Adherence to pharmacotherapy is essential to optimal therapeutic outcomes. The pivotal role of the pharmacist in optimizing adherence encompasses many actions: assessing the adherence problem, identifying predisposing factors, providing comprehensive counseling, and recommending specific adherence strategies targeted to the patient's needs. Patients who have chronic conditions, physical or cogn...

The increasing concern regarding chronic care, which is a consequence of the current demographic progression, and the need to decrease the costs associated with its care, places a focus on social care homes caring for highly dependent patients. Simultaneously, the residential facilities are progressing in order to care for fragile patients with increasingly complexity, even though, with some ex...

Depression is considered one of the ten most disabling conditions on the planet, causing physical, personal and social limitations. Antidepressants are the most commonly used drug treatment for eliminating or controlling the symptoms of depression. A variety of factors can contribute to treatment abandonment, particularly severe side effects. The present article is aimed to provide information ...

Pharmacists are society's experts on drugs. They have been at the interface between prescribers and patients for centuries: in the community particularly they have long provided a direct service to the public. For most of this time they have made medicines and advised on their use, but the growth of the pharmaceutical companies under increasingly stringent legislation has removed much of the ne...

BACKGROUND Pharmacists are considered medication experts but are underutilized and exist mainly at the periphery of the Malaysian primary health care team. Private general practitioners (GPs) in Malaysia are granted rights under the Poison Act 1952 to prescribe and dispense medications at their primary care clinics. As most consumers obtain their medications from their GPs, community pharmacist...

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES To discuss the process, considerations, benefits, and challenges of the nurse as principal investigator in a cancer care drug trial. DATA SOURCES Published articles, anecdotal experience, and completed research studies. DATA SYNTHESIS The specific processes that must be considered are funding sources, protocol development, trial implementation, dissemination of results, a...