Our review demonstrated the important role of clinical pharmacists in managing diabetic patients at diverse settings worldwide. There is an urgent need to recognize and change regulations to allow shared practice agreements among physicians, pharmacists, and other allied health professionals. These mutual agreements would allow more streamlined provision of health care delivery from non-physician health professionals to participants with common health conditions.
BackgroundThe coronavirus disease 2019 , which is also known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), is an infection that is caused by the novel coronavirus. COVID-19 has severely affected the public health by causing more than 200 million cases and four million deaths worldwide. There are, presently, no specific antiviral treatments for COVID-19. As immunization is one of the most successful and cost-effective health interventions to prevent this infectious disease, a number of vaccines, around 112, have been developed. In Saudi Arabia, many vaccination campaigns have already started. There are currently four approved COVID-19 vaccines but only three are available for use in Saudi Arabia.
The study aimed to identify the impact and effectiveness of clinical pharmacist intervention on the management and overall quality of life of diabetic patients. Two cross-sectional studies using SF36 Health Survey, involving physicians and pharmacists at the Ambulatory Care Department in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Diabetic patients showed significant improvements in their QoL in terms of general health, energy and fatigue, pain scores, and social, emotional, and physical functions. Moreover, PC was found to have a significant impact on diabetes related QoL along with various outcome indicators, such as HbA1c, random blood sugar, and lipid profile in such patients. Additionally, satisfactory knowledge, good practice in identifying prescription errors were found among pharmacists. This study reveals that clinical pharmacists are valuable members of interdisciplinary primary care teams in ambulatory care. This can positively impact glycemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes and improve their quality of life. Also, the current study presented that a satisfactory extent of pharmaceutical care by an ambulatory clinical pharmacist was effective in improving HbA1c in patients with diabetes. A clinical pharmacist in ambulatory care was found to be eminent and of an added value to the patients, physicians, and healthcare team.
Background: Tablet-splitting is a common practice in all sectors of healthcare. However, there are certain types of tablets that are not suitable to be split. Reasons to practice tablet splitting are improving dose flexibility, saving cost, and easing swallowing action of the tablets. The study aims to examine and describe the knowledge and practices of tablet splitting, identify the techniques applied by the patients for tablet splitting, and analyze the reasons behind this practice. Methods: This study was conducted as a cross-sectional study using convenient sampling. In total, 390 questionnaires were filled by the respondents throughout the areas in Penang Island within two and half months. Results: About 50 % of the respondents have taken a tablet after splitting it and they were aware of the consequences of inaccurate tablet splitting. Concerning attitudes and practices of the general public towards tablet splitting, most of the respondents (40.26%) split their tablets by hand, followed by knife (28.72%), tablet-splitter (22.05%), teeth (10.77%), and dissolve the whole tablet in the water and drink it (3.08%). Conclusion: Tablet splitting has a major role in dosage adjustment and should be limited to the specific clinical situation. If tablet splitting is still necessary, patient counseling is recommended, and pharmacies should deliver the appropriate tools or pharmacist split tablets for the patients and repackages them.
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