The 10th Anniversary of Healthcare—Medication Management

A special issue of Healthcare (ISSN 2227-9032). This special issue belongs to the section "Medication Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2024) | Viewed by 5378

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
1. Department of Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy Department, School of Pharmacy, Chapman University, Irvine, CA 92618, USA
2. Economic Science Institute, Argyros School of Business and Economics, Chapman University, Orange, CA 92866, USA
Interests: pharmaceutical economics; drug regulation; drug policy
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In 2023, we will celebrate the 10th anniversary volume of the journal Healthcare (ISSN 2227-9032). To commemorate this significant milestone, we are launching a Special Issue entitled "The 10th Anniversary of Healthcare—Medication Management." It is our pleasure to invite you to submit an original research paper or a comprehensive review article for peer review and possible publication in this Special Issue of Healthcare

Healthcare is an international, scientific, peer-reviewed, open access journal on health care systems, industry, technology, policy, and regulation, and is published online by MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Healthcare is indexed within Scopus, SCIE and SSCI (Web of Science), PubMed, PMC, and other databases. The Impact Factor for this journal is 3.160, and it ranks 50/109 (Q2) in “Health Care Sciences & Services” and 35/88 (Q2) in “Health Policy & Services” in Web of Science. The inaugural issue was released in 2013, and in 2021, we published the 1000th paper in this journal. Healthcare is evidently a rapidly developing journal.

This Special Issue focuses on the complex and interrelated topics related to the pharmaceutical sector and medication management, including drug regulation, selection, utilization, health outcomes, reimbursement, and drug access and affordability. The articles will explore the factors that shape drug approval, selection and utilization, as well as the impact of these factors on patient outcomes. The goal of this Special Issue is to provide a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the pharmaceutical sector, with the aim of informing policymakers, researchers, practitioners, and patients on how to improve access to and utilization of safe, effective, and affordable medicines.

Prof. Dr. Enrique Seoane-Vazquez
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • drugs and biologics
  • regulatory agencies
  • pharmaceutical industry
  • generic and biosimilar drugs
  • pharmacoeconomics and health technology assessment
  • reimbursement
  • drug access and affordability
  • formulary and drug utilization management
  • pharmacy and pharmaceutical services

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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12 pages, 1228 KiB  
Article
The Impact of Australian Bushfires on Asthma Medicine Prescription Dispensing
by Zhihua Zhu, Mark Naunton, Reza Mortazavi and Mary Bushell
Healthcare 2024, 12(4), 428; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12040428 - 7 Feb 2024
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Abstract
Background: Air pollution can cause numerous health problems and increase the need for medicines to treat and prevent asthma in affected areas. There is limited evidence about the association between airborne particles with a diameter of 2.5 micrometres or smaller (PM2.5) [...] Read more.
Background: Air pollution can cause numerous health problems and increase the need for medicines to treat and prevent asthma in affected areas. There is limited evidence about the association between airborne particles with a diameter of 2.5 micrometres or smaller (PM2.5) and asthma medicine usage. This study examined the potential association between the levels of PM2.5 and the supply of prescription asthma medicines in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Australia, during the severe bushfire season between November 2019–January 2020. Methods: Daily data was obtained from an ACT air quality monitoring station from November 2019 to January 2020 (study period) and November 2018 to January 2019 (control period, no bushfire). The number and types of government-funded asthma medicine prescriptions were obtained from the Services Australia (government) website by searching under ‘Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme Item Reports’ and using relevant item codes during the study and control periods. Results: The medians for PM2.5 levels for the study period were significantly higher than those for the control period (p < 0.001). There were increases in the number of dispensed prescriptions of short-acting beta-2 agonists (SABA), inhaled corticosteroids, and long-acting beta-2 agonists combined with inhaled corticosteroids. The greatest difference was seen with the inhaled corticosteroids: a 138% increase. Conclusions: The increase in the number of dispensed asthma prescriptions during the bushfire season should be used to inform the stock holdings of these medicines in preparation for future events to ensure access to lifesaving asthma medicines. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The 10th Anniversary of Healthcare—Medication Management)
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20 pages, 1976 KiB  
Article
Identification of Barriers for Active Disease Management and of Medication-Related Problems through Therapeutic Patient Education in Older Home-Care Patients
by Sabrina Grigolo, Barbara Bruschi, Diego Di Masi, Carla Bena, Lucrezia Greta Armando and Clara Cena
Healthcare 2024, 12(2), 231; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12020231 - 17 Jan 2024
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Abstract
Combining therapeutic patient education (TPE) with a medication review service could foster the adoption of appropriate lifestyles by patients and support care-providers in identifying strategies to improve the quality of prescribed care. This study aimed to identify barriers experienced by patients in managing [...] Read more.
Combining therapeutic patient education (TPE) with a medication review service could foster the adoption of appropriate lifestyles by patients and support care-providers in identifying strategies to improve the quality of prescribed care. This study aimed to identify barriers experienced by patients in managing their diseases and medication-related problems. This was a monocentric, case series, observational study involving home-care patients from the Local Health Authority ASL TO4. Patients were enrolled for a TPE intervention where drug therapies and patient habits were collected through narrative interviews. Medication review was performed to identify potentially inappropriate prescriptions (PIPs). Twenty patients (13 females) with a mean age of 74.7 years were enrolled. Patients had an average of 4.3 diseases and 80.0% of them were treated with ≥5 daily medications. The main PIPs involved ibuprofen, furosemide and pantoprazole. The qualitative analysis of the interviews identified seven macro-themes relating to different aspects of medication management: therapy; diseases; patient; patient journey; professionals; family and caregivers; drug information. The results of this study revealed some critical aspects related to the treatment path and healthcare professionals. These results will be used to plan educational interventions for polypharmacy patients to improve medication adherence and the understanding and management of diseases. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The 10th Anniversary of Healthcare—Medication Management)
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Review

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16 pages, 525 KiB  
Review
A Preliminary Scoping Review of the Impact of e-Prescribing on Pharmacists in Community Pharmacies
by Amr A. Farghali and Elizabeth M. Borycki
Healthcare 2024, 12(13), 1280; https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12131280 - 26 Jun 2024
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Abstract
Objective: This scoping review aims to map the available literature and provide an overview of the published articles discussing the impact of electronic prescribing on medication errors and pharmacy workflow. Methods: The literature search was conducted using PubMed®, Web of Science [...] Read more.
Objective: This scoping review aims to map the available literature and provide an overview of the published articles discussing the impact of electronic prescribing on medication errors and pharmacy workflow. Methods: The literature search was conducted using PubMed®, Web of Science®, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews®, as well as grey literature reports, using the search terms and related components of “pharmacists”, “electronic prescribing”, “medication errors”, and “efficiency”. The search included all articles that were published from January 2011 to September 2023. Twenty-two relevant articles were identified and fully reviewed, ten of which were included in this review. Results: Electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) provides a solution for some of the challenges that are associated with handwritten and paper prescriptions. However, the implementation of e-prescribing systems has been recognized as a source of new unforeseen medication errors in all the reviewed articles. Productivity in community pharmacies has been affected with receiving electronic prescriptions (e-prescriptions) and having to deal with the issues that arise from them. The pharmacists’ interventions were not eliminated with e-prescriptions compared to other prescription formats. The most frequently reported reason for intervention was related to incomplete instructions in the field of directions of use. Other common challenges with e-prescriptions were related to missing information, quantity, inappropriate dose, dosage form, and drug. Discussion: This review demonstrates the scarcity of research about the impact of electronic prescribing on medication error and efficiency in community pharmacies. In the literature, most of the studies had mainly focused on hospital pharmacies. The literature search demonstrated that there are still some barriers to overcome with e-prescribing systems and that medication errors were not fully eliminated with e-prescriptions. New errors have been identified with e-prescriptions, all of which caused delays in processing, which affected the productivity of the pharmacy staff, and could have negatively impacted patients’ safety if not properly resolved. Conclusion: e-Prescribing solved some of the challenges associated with illegibility of handwritten prescriptions. However, more time is required to allow e-prescribing systems to mature. Further training for prescribers and pharmacists is also recommended before and after the implementation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The 10th Anniversary of Healthcare—Medication Management)
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