INNOVATIONS in pharmacy (Iip - E-Journal)
Not a member yet
600 research outputs found
Sort by
Errors That Occur from Using an Inappropriate Thermal Buffer When Monitoring the Storage Conditions of Temperature Sensitive Products: Size and Material DO Matter
Get PDFCommon practice in the monitoring of cold chain conditions for temperature sensitive products is to employ a physical thermal buffer into which the temperature probe is inserted. This buffer may be a bottle of glycol or other liquid, a container of glass beads, aluminum block or nearly any other media the user feels appropriate. The purpose of the buffer is to simulate the experience of the stored product rather than the air temperature. Obviously, this mission will not be accomplished to the extent that the physical buffer is not matched to the thermal properties of the stored product and its container. Cold chain managers are faced with a complex problem if they attempt to take this issue into account. Furthermore, a match is not possible with a single physical buffer when the cold storage unit contains different products or size containers. This paper quantifies the results of this mismatch from various factors and suggests possible solutions to this dilemma.
Type: Original Researc
Pilot Study to Assess Outcomes of a Drug Allergy Clarification Service on a General Medicine Floor at a Local Community Hospital
Get PDFPurpose: Drug allergy documentation in the patient medical record varies in level of detail, and drug intolerances are often inappropriately documented as an allergy in the medical record. A pilot study was conducted to determine the impact of a pharmacy-led drug allergy clarification service.
Methods: The pilot quality improvement service was implemented in Fall 2016. General medicine patients were identified through daily census reporting and the electronic medical record (EMR) was reviewed within 72 hours of admission for documented drug allergies and/or intolerances. Patients were interviewed by a clinical pharmacist or a fourth year pharmacy student to determine a complete drug allergy and intolerance history.
Results: A total of 55 patients were interviewed and received the pilot service. A drug allergy/intolerance was documented in EMR for 54.5% (n=30) of patients interviewed. Of those 30 patients, 96.6% (n=29) were noted to have at least one discrepancy between EMR documentation and patient interview. The primary discrepancy noted was drug allergies or intolerances documented in the EMR without a description of the reaction.
Conclusion: A pharmacy-led drug allergy clarification service was effective in identifying and clarifying EMR documentation of patients’ drug allergies and intolerances. Patients with incorrect or incomplete allergy documentation may receive alternative therapy, which could increase costs and lead to unwanted adverse effects or less effective treatment. As a result of the pilot study, the program has remained in effect and is being expanded to other units within the institution.
Article Type: Original Research
 
Pharmacy Students’ Informal Use of Facebook and its Perceived Role in Pharmacy Education in Jordan
Get PDFObjectives: The use of social media, including Facebook, as a tool for learning is becoming increasingly important in health professional education programs including pharmacy. This study aimed to evaluate undergraduate pharmacy students’ informal use and attitudes toward Facebook in professional pharmacy education in Jordan.
Methods: This study was a cross-sectional web-based survey using a 38-item questionnaire that was developed through a multi-phase iterative process. The study targeted all professional year pharmacy students, both BSc and PharmD, at Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST).
Results: Seven hundred twenty pharmacy students responded to the survey (response rate 31.3%). The majority of the students (98.8%) had personal accounts on Facebook. Of this, the majority (82.4%) reported that they unofficially used Facebook as a tool for studying or academic purposes beside other social purposes. Overall, the students demonstrated positive attitudes toward the use of Facebook in pharmacy education. About 78.6% of the respondents reported that Facebook contributed to their academic success. Furthermore, a substantial proportion of the students found Facebook well acceptable in teaching and learning environment (55.2%) and believed that pharmacy schools should formally encourage students to use Facebook for academic purposes (54.1%).
Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that pharmacy students in Jordan frequently and highly utilize Facebook as an unofficial tool for communication, teaching and learning. Pharmacy schools should make every effort to create appropriate learning environment within Facebook that could positively impact students’ academic success. Interventions to improve attitudes toward social media e-professionalism should be in place before formally implementing Facebook and other social media platforms within the pharmacy academic environment.
Conflict of Interest We declare no conflicts of interest or financial interests that the authors or members of their immediate families have in any product or service discussed in the manuscript, including grants (pending or received), employment, gifts, stock holdings or options, honoraria, consultancies, expert testimony, patents and royalties.
Treatment of Human Subjects: IRB review/approval required and obtained
Type: Original Researc
Design Thinking In Pharmacy Education: Inspiring Creative Problem Solving in the Next Generation of Pharmacists
Get PDFBorn from the world of product and service innovation, design thinking is gaining popularity as a method for introducing creative problem solving into the education of health professionals. Mindsets developed through practicing design thinking can help learners and educators address complex healthcare issues in a whole new way. This article aims to introduce the concepts of design thinking to the pharmacy educator, give examples of its use in pharmacy education, and discuss the value of including it in pharmacy education from both an educator and a student’s perspective.
Topic: Commentary
 
Bridging the Gap: Collaboration between a School of Pharmacy, Public Health, and Governmental Organizations to provide Clinical and Economic Services to Medicare Beneficiaries
Get PDFObjective: Promoting healthy communities through the provision of accessible quality healthcare services is a common mission shared by schools of pharmacy, public health departments, and governmental agencies. The following study seeks to identify and detail the benefits of collaboration between these different groups.
Methods: In total, 112 mobile clinics targeting Medicare beneficiaries were held in 20 cities across Northern/Central California from 2007 to 2016. Under the supervision of licensed pharmacists, trained student pharmacists provided vaccinations, health screenings, Medicare Part D plan optimization services, and Medication Therapy Management (MTM) to patients at each clinic site. Clinic support was extended by public health departments, governmental agency partners, and a health professional program.
Results: Since clinic inception, 8,996 patients were provided services. In total, 19,441 health screenings and 3,643 vaccinations were collectively provided to clinic patients. We assisted 5,549 beneficiaries with their Part D benefit, resulting in an estimated aggregate out-of-pocket drug cost savings of $5.7 million. Comprehensive MTM services were provided to 4,717 patients during which 8,184 medication-related problem (MRP) were identified. In 15.3% of patients, the MRP was determined severe enough to warrant prescriber follow-up. In total, 42.9% of clinic patients were from racial/ethnic minority groups and 25.5% had incomes ≤150% of the Federal Poverty Level.
Conclusion: Collaboration between a school of pharmacy, public health departments, and governmental organizations can effectively serve Medicare beneficiary populations and result in: 1) lower out-of-pocket drug costs, 2) minimization of medication-related problems, 3) increased vaccination uptake, and 4) increased utilization of health screenings.
Conflict of Interest We declare no conflicts of interest or financial interests that the authors or members of their immediate families have in any product or service discussed in the manuscript, including grants (pending or received), employment, gifts, stock holdings or options, honoraria, consultancies, expert testimony, patents and royalties.
Treatment of Human Subjects: IRB review/approval required and obtained
Type: Original Researc
Hybrid Online Delivery of a Pharmacy Residency and Fellowship Elective Course
Get PDF
Objective: To describe and evaluate the transition of a pharmacy residency and fellowship (PRF) elective course to a hybrid online platform.
Innovation: In 2016, the 1-credit hour PRF elective was transitioned from a live, synchronous course to a hybrid online platform. Over the course of the semester, students completed eight modules along with assignments that pertained to a different component of PRF. Course grades and evaluations, as well as PRF placement rates, were compared between 2015 (live, synchronous course) and 2016 (hybrid online course). There were no differences in overall course grades or student evaluations of individual relevant course objectives between the two course formats. However, more students rated the course as excellent during the 2015 live, synchronous course. Placement rates were similar between students who took the course in 2015 and 2016.
Critical Analysis: Following the transition of a PRF elective to a hybrid online platform, course grades, evaluation of individual relevant course objectives, and PRF placement rates remained similar to previous years. Creative educational venues can help meet the student demand while simultaneously allowing faculty to manage their time. However, instructors should balance this with desire of students to have more face-to-face in class time.
Type: Not
Questions on the Teaching of the Patient Care Process: Letter in Response to "Beyond the Pharmacist's Patient Care Process"
No full textNot applicabl
Pharmacy Internships: We Can Do Better
Get PDFThe pharmacist’s role in patient care is expanding, and the profession must prepare its graduates for direct patient care. Internships can help facilitate this training outside of the formal pharmacy curriculum. Intern roles can expand beyond distributive tasks to compliment the full range of pharmacist activities, providing value to the student and institution. Crucially, outcomes measured must not only be traditional measures of student and pharmacist output, but also the growth and success of the student within the program. Creative metrics (e.g. resilience or leadership development) should be considered when assessing programmatic outcomes. Programs already engaged in internship programs should assess their respective programs and report findings.
Article Type: Commentar
Blockchains, Property Rights and Health Technology Assessment in the Pharmaceutical and Device(s) Industries
Get PDFOngoing concerns with the security of health information, both from the perspective of the individual patient as well as health systems has led to increased attention being given to the potential role of blockchain technology in the secure storage of health information through encryption, the integration of diverse health record systems and the vesting of property and access rights to health data in the patient. While the security offered by blockchain technology has long been recognized in the finance sector with the emergence of a range of cryptocurrencies as a medium of exchange and store of value, demonstrating the value of blockchain technology in health management and health technology assessment has yet to be achieved. In this commentary, a number of questions are raised as to the potential value offered by blockchain technology as a complement to existing electronic medical record systems. Chief among these are: (i) the allocation of property rights as a necessary precondition for blockchain uptake; (ii) access and incentives for active as opposed to passive blockchain membership; (iii) monetization of blockchain access; (iv) capturing data from within the blockchain and the possibility of value added data; (v) the potential for blockchain platforms in formulary evaluations; (vi) the blockchain as a managed market for health data; and (vii) the role of intermediation in blockchain management.
Article Type: Commentar
CVS Health and the Imaginary Worlds of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER)
Get PDFIn August 2018, CVS Health released a position paper detailing policies in place and those being implemented to help reduce the costs of drugs. This paper introduced three new strategies for reducing costs. These are (i) zero out of pocket costs for chronic disease through a preventive drug list; (ii) reducing the launch price through adoption of modeled cost-per-QALY outcomes by the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) to guide clients to exclude drugs launched at a price of greater than $100,000 per QALY; and (iii) introducing tools to be used by doctors, pharmacists and consumers to create greater transparency in understanding the real cost of drugs. The purpose of this commentary is to consider the second of these strategies, the application of a willingness to pay threshold as a viable strategy for impacting launch costs. The arguments presented here are that while modeled cost-per-QALY claims are a staple of formulary committee deliberations in many single payer health systems, their adoption by CVS Health fails to take into account not only the imaginary nature of the modeled construct utilized to generate the cost-per-QALY estimate and its shortcomings but the fact that alternative model structures may render invalid the application of willingness-to-pay thresholds. The case is made that CVS Health could adopt a more rigorous process of formulary assessment to support both preliminary assessments of new products and also an ongoing process of formulary review that challenge manufacturers to justify pricing over product patent life. This process should capitalize on the development of formulary evaluation platforms, potentially involving blockchain technology and smart contracting, for therapy interventions in targeted patient populations. Introducing a more rigorous formulary process, in particular the requirement for claims evaluation protocols, will not only assist CVS Health in restraining price increases over the life of the product but, for the first time in the US, put manufacturers on notice that patently unreasonable pricing policies and claims for product performance can be systematically and effectively challenged.
Article Type: Commentar