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Objectives Clinical services have allowed pharmacists to shift from product-oriented to patient-oriented services. However, the policy and social implications of clinical services in community pharmacies are not well described. The purpose of this scoping review was to identify these implications. Key findings We searched Pubmed and Embase, from inception to March 2019, as well as grey literature for publications that discussed policy (e.g. pharmacy model and pharmacist status) or social (e.g. role of pharmacists and interprofessional collaboration) implications of clinical services. Publications had to address clinical services provided by pharmacists in community settings that target the global long-term care of patients. We extracted data related to the implications and classified them into themes thereafter. The search process identified 73 relevant publications, of which 13 were included in regard to policy implications and 60 relative to social implications. Two themes emerged from policy implications: implementation and characteristics of policies, and professional status. Pharmacists’ independence from distribution, financial coverage of clinical services and innovative models of practice were addressed. Social implications involved three themes: roles and interprofessional collaboration, changes in practice and barriers and model of practices and services. Perceptions of pharmacists’ skills, organisational barriers, time constraints, lack of self-confidence and cultural shifts required to implement clinical services were included in these themes. Summary Our review demonstrates the changing role of community pharmacists in provision of clinical services within the healthcare system. The range of clinical services varies widely from one setting to another. The context of community pharmacy is not well suited to these changes in practice.

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OBJECTIVES: Venous thromboembolic events (VTE) are frequent complications in hospitalized patients and a leading cause of preventable death in hospital. Pharmacologic prophylaxis is a standard of care to prevent VTE in patients at risk, the additional value of intermittent pneumatic compression (IPC) is uncertain. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy of adding IPC to pharmacologic prophylaxis to prevent VTE in hospitalized adults. DATA SOURCES:We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Embase, MEDLINE, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, ClinicalTrials.gov, and the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform from inception to July 2022. STUDY SELECTION:We included randomized controlled trials comparing the use of IPC in addition to pharmacological thromboprophylaxis to pharmacological thromboprophylaxis alone in hospitalized adults.DATA EXTRACTION: Meta-analyses were performed to calculate risk ratio (RR) of VTE, deep venous thrombosis (DVT), and pulmonary embolism (PE). We assessed the risk of bias using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool for Randomized Trials, Version 2 and the quality of evidence using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach. DATA SYNTHESIS:We included 17 trials enrolling 8,796 participants. The IPC was mostly applied up to the thigh and pharmacological thromboprophylaxis was primarily low-molecular-weight heparin. Adjunctive IPC was associated with a decreased risk of VTE (15 trials, RR = 0.53; 95% CI [0.35-0.81]) and DVT (14 trials, RR = 0.52; 95% CI [0.33-0.81]) but not PE (seven trials, RR = 0.73; 95% ). The quality of evidence was graded low, downgraded by risk of bias and inconsistency. Moderate and very low-quality evidence, respectively, suggests that adjunctive IPC is unlikely to change the risk of all-cause mortality or adverse events. Subgroup analyses indicate a more evident apparent benefit in industry-funded trials. CONCLUSIONS:Results indicate low-quality evidence underpinning the additional use of IPC to pharmacological thromboprophylaxis for prevention of VTE and DVT. Further large high-quality randomized trials are warranted to support its use and to identify patient subgroups for whom it could be beneficial. KEY WORDS: intermittent pneumatic compression devices; pulmonary embolism; Venous thromboembolic events; venous thrombosis V nous thromboembolic events (VTE), including deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), are the second most frequent medical complication of hospitalization, the leading cause of preventable