Data and Development: Drug Utilisation, Pharmacoepidemiology and Health Technology Assessment

A special issue of Pharmacy (ISSN 2226-4787).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 August 2020) | Viewed by 18397

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, University of Newcastle, Callaghan NSW 2308, Australia
Interests: clinical pharmacy and pharmacy practice; drug utilisation review and pharmacoepidemiology; medicine use among vulnerable populations; health literacy

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Guest Editor
School of Pharmacy, University of Queensland, Woolloongabba, QLD 4102, Australia
Interests: pharmacoepidemiology; health technology assessment; health outcomes and medicines use in the real world; health services research

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue focuses on drug utilisation (“medicine use”), pharmacoepidemiology and health technology assessment to provide opportunities to assess, share and improve the use of medicines across the globe. It aims to incorporate data and development—including the UN Sustainable Development Goals (with a focus on health (SDG3 https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg3)—and will provide a scientific forum for sharing findings and initiatives which could lead to cross-national drug utilisation studies.

We invite you to contribute original research, including systematic reviews or brief reports, to this Special Issue. Topics that explore rational and quality use of medicines and improved health outcomes are welcome. Whether your research is conducted in a country where there is access to large databases of computerised records (such as claims), or whether your research has overcome challenges to provide evidence from sources such as patient charts, drug use evaluation (DUE), questionnaires, or interviews, you are invited to submit findings which contribute to the global quality use of medicines.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Therese Kairuz
Dr. Samantha Hollingworth
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • Pharmacoepidemiology
  • Medicine use
  • Drug utilisation
  • Health technology assessment
  • Sustainable Development Goals

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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10 pages, 233 KiB  
Article
Pharmacists’ Perspectives on the Use of My Health Record
by Sam Kosari, Kwang Choon Yee, Stephanie Mulhall, Jackson Thomas, Shane L. Jackson, Gregory M. Peterson, Ayla Rudgley, Iain Walker and Mark Naunton
Pharmacy 2020, 8(4), 190; https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy8040190 - 14 Oct 2020
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 4459
Abstract
(1) Background: My Health Record (MHR) is a relatively new nationwide Australian digital health record system accessible by patients and a range of healthcare professionals. Pharmacists will be key contributors and users of the MHR system, yet little is known about the perceived [...] Read more.
(1) Background: My Health Record (MHR) is a relatively new nationwide Australian digital health record system accessible by patients and a range of healthcare professionals. Pharmacists will be key contributors and users of the MHR system, yet little is known about the perceived barriers and benefits of use. (2) Objective: To explore pharmacists’ perspectives related to potential benefits and barriers associated with use of MHR. (3) Methods: An online survey was developed and face-validated. The survey was advertised to Australian pharmacists on pharmacy professional bodies’ websites. This was a cross-sectional study using an anonymous questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the distribution of the data. Chi-square, Kendall’s tau coefficient (tau-c) and Kruskal–Wallis tests were used to examine the relationships where appropriate. (4) Results: A total of 63 pharmacists completed the survey. The majority of respondents worked in a metropolitan area (74%), and the most common workplace setting was community pharmacy (65%). Perceived benefits identified by responders include that the use of MHR would help with continuity of care (90%), and that it would improve the safety (71%) and quality (75%) of care they provided. Importantly, more than half of pharmacists surveyed agreed that MHR could reduce medication errors during dispensing (57%) and could improve professional relationships with patients (57%) and general practitioners (59%). Potential barriers identified by pharmacists included patients’ concerns about privacy (81%), pharmacists’ own concern about privacy (46%), lack of training, access to and confidence in using the system. Sixty six percent of respondents had concerns about the accuracy of information contained within MHR, particularly among hospital and general practice pharmacists (p = 0.016) and almost half (44%) had concerns about the security of information in the system, mainly pharmacists working at general practice and providing medication review services (p = 0.007). Overall satisfaction with MHR varied, with 48% satisfied, 33% neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, and 19% dissatisfied, with a higher satisfaction rate among younger pharmacists (p = 0.032). (5) Conclusions: Pharmacists considered that the MHR offered key potential benefits, notably improving the safety and quality of care provided. To optimize the use of MHR, there is a need to improve privacy and data security measures, and to ensure adequate provision of user support and education surrounding the ability to integrate use of MHR with existing workflows and software. Full article
9 pages, 232 KiB  
Article
Potential for Detection of Safety Signals for Over-the-Counter Medicines Using National ADR Spontaneous Reporting Data: The Example of OTC NSAID-Associated Gastrointestinal Bleeding
by Elina Amatya, Romano Fois, Kylie A. Williams and Lisa G. Pont
Pharmacy 2020, 8(3), 174; https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy8030174 - 17 Sep 2020
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2836
Abstract
One post-marketing surveillance challenge for many regulatory authorities is access to information regarding the safety of over-the-counter (OTC) medicines. National spontaneous adverse drug reaction (ADR) report data represent a rich potential data source for the detection of safety signals associated with OTC medicines, [...] Read more.
One post-marketing surveillance challenge for many regulatory authorities is access to information regarding the safety of over-the-counter (OTC) medicines. National spontaneous adverse drug reaction (ADR) report data represent a rich potential data source for the detection of safety signals associated with OTC medicines, yet little is known regarding the possibility of detecting safety signals for OTC medicines within these datasets. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential for detecting safety signals for OTC medicines in National ADR spontaneous reporting data, using OTC non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and gastrointestinal bleeding as an example. Data from the Australian Adverse Drug Reactions System (ADRS) dataset (1971–2008) and the Canadian Vigilance Adverse Reaction Online Database (VAROD) (1965–2013) were used to explore the feasibility of using spontaneous reporting data, exploring the association between gastrointestinal bleeding and the use of OTC NSAIDs. Safety signals were examined using disproportionality analyses and reporting odds ratios calculated. After adjusting for age, gender, medications known to increase the risk of bleeding, and medications used for the management of conditions associated with an increased risk of bleeding, a two-fold increase in the risk of gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding with OTC NSAID was observed within each dataset. This study demonstrates that spontaneous ADR reporting data can be used in pharmacovigilance to monitor the safety of OTC medicines. Full article
16 pages, 420 KiB  
Article
Drug Utilisation and Off-Label Use on a German Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A Retrospective Cohort Study and 10-Year Comparison
by Carmen Geißler, Christopher Schulze, Sebastian Botzenhardt, Wolfgang Rascher and Antje Neubert
Pharmacy 2020, 8(3), 173; https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy8030173 - 17 Sep 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2743
Abstract
Pharmacotherapy of neonates is complex and marked to a large extent of off-label use. The implementation of the Paediatric Regulation (2007) gave hope for a change in the safety and efficacy for drugs used in neonatal intensive care units (NICU). This study investigates [...] Read more.
Pharmacotherapy of neonates is complex and marked to a large extent of off-label use. The implementation of the Paediatric Regulation (2007) gave hope for a change in the safety and efficacy for drugs used in neonatal intensive care units (NICU). This study investigates drug utilisation patterns and off-label use in a German neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in 2014. A 12-months retrospective, observational cohort study was performed at the NICU of the University Children’s Hospital Erlangen, Germany. Licensing status was determined using the Summary of Product Characteristics (SmPC). Results are compared with a similar study conducted 10 years earlier. The study included 204 patients (57.8% male) (2004: 183) and 2274 drug prescriptions were recorded (2004: 1978). The drugs that were mostly prescribed were drugs for the nervous system (2004: 22.6%; 2014: 26.9%) and anti-infectives for systemic use (2004: 26.0%; 2014: 24.9%);34.3% (2004) and 39.2% (2014) of all prescriptions were off-label;62.7% of all patients received at least one off-label or unlicensed drug (2004: 70%). For 13 drugs, the licensing status changed either from off-label to label (n = 9) or vice versa (n = 4). Overall, there was no significant change neither in terms of the drugs used nor regarding their licensing status. Further studies are needed to validate these findings in a European context. Full article
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8 pages, 243 KiB  
Commentary
Measuring Medicine Use: Applying ATC/DDD Methodology to Real-World Data
by Samantha Hollingworth and Therése Kairuz
Pharmacy 2021, 9(1), 60; https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy9010060 - 17 Mar 2021
Cited by 36 | Viewed by 7656
Abstract
Medicines are essential for the treatment of acute, communicable, and non-communicable diseases. The World Health Organization developed a toolkit for drug (medicine) utilization studies to assist in reviewing and evaluating the prescribing, dispensing, and use of medicines. There is a growing need for [...] Read more.
Medicines are essential for the treatment of acute, communicable, and non-communicable diseases. The World Health Organization developed a toolkit for drug (medicine) utilization studies to assist in reviewing and evaluating the prescribing, dispensing, and use of medicines. There is a growing need for rigorous studies of medicine use in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) using standard approaches, especially in the context of universal health coverage. This commentary provides a succinct summary of how to use the WHO anatomical therapeutic chemical (ATC)/defined daily dose (DDD) methodology in pharmacoepidemiological studies, with a focus on LMIC contexts. We drew on information from WHO resources and published literature, citing examples and case studies. We encourage readers to publish their drug utilization studies, although we caution about predatory journals. We recommend the use of the RECORD-PE initiative which focuses on methods for doing pharmacoepidemiological research and evaluating the quality of published papers. Full article
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