The introduction of a chemotherapy-compounding robot for preparation of patient-specific i.v. antineoplastic drugs had a limited efficiency impact in practice. This solution, with its numerous limitations and technical difficulties, is not yet mature enough for universal adoption.

ObjectivesThis study aims to evaluate the knowledge of healthcare providers and the cost of the current institutional e-resources in an adult oncology setting. To assess the awareness, accessibility, and utilization of the available intranet e-resources, a survey questionnaire was distributed to all oncology healthcare practitioners (physicians, nurses, and pharmacists) in an adult oncology center. The e-resources were divided into two main categories: pre-paid and institution-specific. The cost of the pre-paid e-resources was obtained from the relevant department. The cost of the institution-specific e-resources was calculated based on the human cost spent developing these e-resources; the cost of the information technology (IT) and the organizational overhead were also taken into consideration.ResultsInstitution-specific e-resources constituted the majority (62%) versus (38%) for pre-paid. The overall awareness, access, and frequent utilization of institution-specific e-resources, as compared to pre-paid e-resources, were low (< 50%). The cost of the institution-specific e-resources was $1,137,196, which was more than ten times higher than the pre-paid e-resources. This study identifies the general lack of awareness and utilization of institutional e-resources. The low utilization coupled with the high cost of the institution-specific e-resources makes pre-paid e-resources an attractive alternative for any institution.

Health care practitioners utilize the United States-Food and Drug Administration (US-FDA) pregnancy categorization (A, B, C, D, X) for making decision on the appropriateness of certain medications during pregnancy. Many non US-FDA approved medications are registered and marketed in Saudi Arabia. However, these medications do not have an assigned pregnancy risk categorization like those approved in the US. The objective of this review is to evaluate, report, and categorize the foetal risk associated with non-US-FDA approved medications registered by the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (S-FDA) according to the US-FDA pregnancy risk categorization system. We identified 109 non-US-FDA approved medications in the Saudi National Formulary (SNF) as of October 2007. We searched for data on functional or anatomical birth defects or embryocidal-associated risk using different databases and references. An algorithm for risk assessment was used to determine a pregnancy risk category for each medication. Out of 93 eligible medications, 73% were assigned category risk C, 10 medications (11%) were assigned category risk D, and 12 medications (13%) were assigned category risk B. Only three medications were judged to be safe during pregnancy based on the available evidence and were assigned category risk A. Inconsistencies in defining and reporting the foetal risk category among different drug regulatory authorities could create confusion and affect prescribing. We believe that standardization and inclusion of this information in the medication package insert is extremely important to all health care practitioners.

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Background and aims Subcutaneous immunoglobulin (SCIG) home infusion is widely used as an alternative to intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG). The aim of this study is to determine the quality of life in primary immunodeficiency (PID) patient’s after switching to home based SCIG. Methods Prospective open-label, single center study. Quality of life (QoL) was determined using a validated Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ) (HealthActCHQ, Boston, MA, USA) in Arabic at baseline, 3 and 6 months after switching from IVIG to SCIG. Results From July 2018 to August 2021, 29 patients were recruited and 25 patient’s data were available for analysis: 15 females and 10 males. The median age was 5 years old (Range 0–14 years). The patient’s diagnoses were 11 severe combined immunodeficiency, 3 combined immunodeficiency, 2 agammaglobulinemia, 2 Omenn syndrome, 2 immunodysregulation, 2 hyper-IgE syndrome, 1 common variable immunodeficiency, 1 bare lymphocyte syndrome, and 1 chronic granulomatous disease. The median time on IVIG was 57 months (Range 3–125 months). The baseline mean serum IgG trough levels was 8.8 g/L ± 2.1. The mean serum IgG level was significantly higher on SCIG at 11.7 ± 2.3 and 11.7 ± 2.5 at 3 months and 6 months respectively. The QoL score showed a significant improvement in the child’s global health at 3 and 6 months compared to baseline (P-value 0.001 and 0.001 respectively) and a significant improvement in the child general health in the 3 and 6 months compared to the baseline (P-value 0.01 and 0.03 respectively). Conclusions This is the first study in an Arab population showing improvement in the QoL for PID patients after switching from hospital based IVIG to home based SCIG.