Pharmacy

Special Issue Editor

Dr. David M. Jacobs

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Pharmacy Practice, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA
Interests: health services research; implementation science; mixed methods; health outcomes; pharmacoepidemiology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Pharmaceutical health services research is a multidisciplinary field of scientific investigation that broadly evaluates pharmaceutical care services, medication use, and the delivery of interventions to improve medication use. The primary goals of health services research are to identify the most effective methods to deliver high quality care, reduce medical errors, and improve patient safety. Therefore, pharmaceutical health services research comprises a broad spectrum of disciplines including, but not limited to:

Health outcomes
Pharmacoepidemiology
Pharmacoeconomics
Implementation science
Health policy

This Special Issue entitled “Pharmaceutical Health Services and Outcomes Research” invites a broad range of article submissions (including original research, short communications, reviews, commentaries, and idea papers) that examine the quality and delivery of pharmaceuticals and related healthcare services. In addition, we are interested in articles that measure the use and effects of medications in different populations as well as the implementation of pharmaceutical care services. Given the nature of the discipline, we are interested in manuscripts using a broad range of methodologies and approaches including, but not limited to, interventional studies, observational designs, and qualitative or mixed methods. We hope this Special Issue will inspire pharmacists, educators, and researchers to share their impact on this important field. We look forward to your submissions and welcome any questions regarding this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. David M. Jacobs
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. Pharmacy 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 1800 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

Health services research
Health outcomes
Pharmaceutical care services
Practice-based research
Pharmacoepidemiology
Implementation science

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

Jump to: Review

13 pages, 249 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Defined Daily Dose and Appropriateness of Clinical Application: The Coxibs and Traditional Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs for Postoperative Orthopaedics Pain Control in a Private Hospital in Malaysia

by Faizah Safina Bakrin, Mohd Makmor-Bakry, Wan Hazmy Che Hon, Shafeeq Mohd Faizal, Mohamed Mansor Manan and Long Chiau Ming

Pharmacy 2020, 8(4), 235; https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy8040235 - 8 Dec 2020

Viewed by 2672

Abstract

Introduction: Drug utilization of analgesics in a private healthcare setting is useful to examine their prescribing patterns, especially the newer injectable cyclooxygenase (COX)-2 inhibitors (coxibs). Objectives: To evaluate the utilization of coxibs and traditional nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (tNSAIDs) indicated for postoperative orthopaedic pain control using defined daily dose (DDD) and ratio of use density to use rate (UD/UR). Method: A retrospective drug utilization review (DUR) of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) at an inpatient department of a private teaching hospital in Seremban, Malaysia was conducted. Patients’ demographic characteristics, medications prescribed, clinical lab results, visual analogue scale (VAS) pain scores and length of hospital stay were documented. Orthopaedic surgeries, namely arthroscopy, reconstructive, and fracture fixation, were included. Stratified random sampling was used to select patients. Data were collected through patients’ medical records. The DDD per 100 admissions and the indicator UD/UR were calculated with the World Health Organization’s DDD as a benchmark. The inclusion criteria were patients undergoing orthopaedic surgery prescribed with coxibs (celecoxib capsules, etoricoxib tablets, parecoxib injections) and tNSAIDs (dexketoprofen injections, diclofenac sodium tablets). Data were analysed descriptively. This research was approved by the academic institution and the hospital research ethics committee. Result: A total of 195 records of patients who received NSAIDs were randomly selected among 1169 cases. In term of the types of orthopaedic surgery, the ratio of included records for arthroscopy:fracture fixation:reconstructive surgery was 55.4:35.9:8.7. Most of the inpatients had low rates of common comorbidities such as cardiovascular disease as supported by their baseline parameters. The majority were not prescribed with other concomitant prescriptions that could cause drug interaction (74.9%), or gastroprotective agents (77.4%). Overall, DDDs per 100 admissions for all NSAIDs were less than 100, except for parecoxib injections (389.23). The UD/UR for all NSAIDs were less than 100, except for etoricoxib tablets (105.75) and parecoxib injections (108.00). Discussion: As per guidelines, the majority (96.9%) received other analgesics to ensure a multimodal approach was carried out to control pain. From the UD/UR results, the arthroscopy surgery was probably the most appropriate in terms of NSAID utilization. Conclusion: The prescribing pattern of NSAIDs except parecoxib was appropriate based on adverse effect and concurrent medication profile. The findings of this DUR provide insight for a low-risk patient population at a private specialized teaching hospital on the recommended use of NSAIDs for postoperative orthopaedic pain control. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pharmaceutical Health Services and Outcomes Research)

Review

Jump to: Research

12 pages, 552 KiB

Open AccessReview

Factors Impacting Pharmaceutical Prices and Affordability: Narrative Review

by Kah Seng Lee, Yaman Walid Kassab, Nur Akmar Taha and Zainol Akbar Zainal

Pharmacy 2021, 9(1), 1; https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmacy9010001 - 23 Dec 2020

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 9562

Abstract

Increasing prescription drug pricing often reflects additional work stress on medical professionals because they function as financial advisors for patients and help them manage out-of-pocket expenses. Providers or prescribers wish to help patients with prescription costs but often lack related information. Healthcare plan providers try to display prescription and drug cost information on their websites, but such data may not be linked to electronic prescription software. A mark-up is defined as the additional charges and costs that are applied to the price of a product for the purpose of covering overhead costs, distribution charges, and profit. Therefore, the policies implemented in the pharmaceutical distribution chain might include the regulation of wholesale and retails mark-ups and pharmaceutical remuneration. If mark-ups are regulated, countries are highly recommended to use regressive mark-ups rather than fixed percentage mark-ups. This narrative review provides insights into the framework of pharmaceutical mark-up systems by describing different factors impacting pharmaceutical prices and affordability. These include the interplay of medicine pricing and the supply chain, the impact of pertinent laws and regulation and out-of-pocket expenditure. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pharmaceutical Health Services and Outcomes Research)

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