Objective:Medical students need proper education in drug prescription. The aim of the present study is to introduce a course that improves the students' prescribing skills and also promotes an interprofessional collaboration between medicine and pharmacy schools.Methods:This study was done in a skill laboratory at the pharmacotherapy department of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. The course was an 18-h interactive workshop in 3 days under the supervision of clinical pharmacists. A total of 18 medical students participated in these classes before their internship. Before and after each class, they were given tests and paired t-test was done to compare the marks.Findings:A total of 18 medical students participated in this study. The results showed that the knowledge of the students on pharmacotherapy, drug information, and prescribing skills has been significantly improved at the end of the course.Conclusion:Using clinical pharmacists to the present pharmacotherapy course could be an effective model for medical students to obtain better prescribing skills.

Islamic Republic of)Objectives: Cancer is one of the major causes of mortality and represents a significant burden of disease. Due to the complexity of chemotherapy regimens, medication errors can occur at any point from prescribing to administration. Today, pharmacists play an important role in rationalizing consumption and prescription of medicines for patients undergoing chemotherapy. Intervention of the pharmacist, as one of the last members of the treatment team, can reduce adverse drug events (ADEs) and ultimately save costs. This study estimated the cost-benefit ratio of pharmacist interventions over a year in a chemotherapy preparation unit at a referral hospital in Iran in which annually about 10,000 cancer patients receive inpatient and outpatient care. Methods: Pharmacist intervention records from Sep 2017 to Aug 2018 collected in a standard checklist in Cancer Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran.The clinical significance of interventions was rated by one oncologist and one clinical pharmacist according to Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Event (CTCAE). Benefit was estimated through both cost avoidance based on the potential to avoid an ADE and cost savings related to reducing discarded products. Cost was estimated from the pharmacists' salary corresponding to the time spent in reviewing chemotherapy prescriptions. Finally, the analysis was conducted by calculation of the cost-benefit ratio. Results: Among 18,450 cancer chemotherapy prescriptions, 559 interventions were applied. Most cases of interventions were related to dosage adjustment of the prescribed dosage (36.4%). 78% of the interventions were considered as clinically more than significant. The cost-benefit analysis showed a clear cost benefit with a cost-benefit ratio of 2.3-16.6 (depends on clinical significance):1. Conclusions: Positive impact of pharmacists' interventions on the clinical and economic outcomes of chemotherapy drugs was clearly demonstrated in this study. This service could reduce medication errors, preventable ADEs, as well as costs of both medications and potential ADEs.

Objectives Critically ill patients are at risk of drug-related problems (DRPs) and healthcare-related cost. Clinical pharmacists are specifically trained in pharmacotherapy evaluation; they can identify and prevent DRPs. We aim to evaluate clinical and economic impact of clinical pharmacist by cost–benefit analysis in intensive care unit. Methods This was a prospective, interventional study from healthcare provider perspective which conducted over 6 months in a neurosurgery intensive care unit (ICU) of a university hospital on 162 patients. A clinical pharmacist was dedicated to implement comprehensive medication management. All pharmacotherapy problems were categorized and economic impact of clinical pharmacist’s interventions including cost–benefit ratio and net benefit in the ICU was assessed. Key findings A total of 1524 interventions were done. The top five pharmacotherapy-related problems were defined as, drug selection (33.3%), dose adjustment (17.32%), fluid and electrolyte management (12.99%), drug discontinuation (12.07%) and therapeutic drug monitoring (6.75%). The minimum and maximum benefit–cost ratio was 8.4:1 to 12.7:1 and net benefit was $169,205 to $266,633, respectively over the 6-month period. Conclusions The participation of a clinical pharmacist in a multidisciplinary ICU team by implementation of comprehensive medication management may reduce healthcare expenditures and improve drug safety.