Designing Quality Health Services Research: Why Comparative Effectiveness Studies Are Needed and Why Pharmacists Should Be Involved

Colony‐Stimulating Factor Use and Impact on Febrile Neutropenia Among Patients with Newly Diagnosed Breast, Colorectal, or Non–Small Cell Lung Cancer Who Were Receiving Chemotherapy

“…Given the limitations of this retrospective analysis and the expense associated with febrile neutropenia and CSF use in clinical practice, prospective randomized controlled trials are needed to evaluate their effectiveness. As recently noted, pharmacists have a substantial opportunity to participate in health services research . One such opportunity includes evaluating if improved compliance with prescribing primary prophylactic CSFs according to practice guidelines can benefit patients while decreasing the costs associated with these supportive care drugs.…”

Evolution of Clinical Pharmacy in the USA and Future Directions for Patient Care

“…36,42 Our goal was to conduct cluster, randomized trials that used intention-to-treat analyses and also were controlled for many critical covariates that can influence BP. 43,44 We found that the intervention significantly improved BP control and resulted in approximately an 8 mm Hg better mean systolic BP compared to usual care. We also found that 24-hour BP control was much better in the intervention groups compared to the control groups.…”

Evaluation of the Effect of A Structured Program to Guide Residents’ Experience in Research (ASPIRE) on Pharmacy Residents’ Knowledge, Confidence, and Attitude toward Research

“…These attitudes and values are encouraging and support the future role of pharmacists as research scientists, a concept that is being promoted by professional organizations. [1][2] A limitation of this study is that it was not randomized, so we could not control for unmeasured sources of bias. Also, although questions regarding study design and compliance issues were added, the knowledge tool focused heavily on biostatistics knowledge so it may not be broad enough to encompass the full range of the learning covered by the training program.…”

“…The American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) has a vision that “clinical pharmacy investigators will play a prominent role in generating the new knowledge to be used to guide patient pharmacotherapy.” Given how important drug therapy is to health care, significant opportunities exist for pharmacists to contribute to the scientific literature . Opinions differ regarding the optimal terminal training required to develop pharmacy scholars capable of leading large research endeavors, but for many pharmacists, introduction to the conduct of research occurs during residency training .…”

“…1 Given how important drug therapy is to health care, significant opportunities exist for pharmacists to contribute to the scientific literature. 1,2 Opinions differ regarding the optimal terminal training required to develop pharmacy scholars capable of leading large research endeavors, [3][4][5] but for many pharmacists, introduction to the conduct of research occurs during residency training. 6 With over 3600 pharmacists matching to residency training programs in 2015, this represents a great opportunity to inspire inquisitive minds to participate in research and scholarship.…”