Perspectives of the community in the developing countries toward telemedicine and pharmaceutical care during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Background: Pharmaceutical care (PC) services have expanded in recent years, resulting in improved patient outcomes. However, such PC services are currently available for free in the majority of Arabic countries. During the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, telemedicine is especially beneficial since it allows for continuity of care while allowing for social distancing and minimizing the risk of infection. Objective: To assess the community’s attitude, opinion, and willingness to pay for telemedicine and PC services during COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to create a website provision for telemedicine and PC services. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted, over five months (December 2020– April 2021), among the general population in Arabic countries, excluding pharmacists, physicians, and pharmacy students. Results: A total of 1717 participants were involved, most of them were from Jordan (52.2%) and Iraq (24.8%). Sixty two percent of participants seek pharmacists’ advice whenever they have any medication changes and 45.1% of the participants agreed with the idea of paying pharmacists to decrease medication errors. Interestingly, 89.5% of participants encouraged the idea of creating a website that provides a PC, and 35.5% of them would pay for it. The failure to document the medical information of the patients had most applicants’ agreement as a reason of medical errors (M=4.17/5, SD=0.787). More than three-quarters of participants agreed that creating a database containing the patients’ medical information will reduce medical errors. Conclusion: From a patients’ perspective, this study suggests a large patient need for expanding PC services in Arabic countries and introduces a direct estimate of the monetary value for the PC services to contribute to higher savings. The majority of participants supported the idea of creating a website provision of telemedicine and PC services, and a considerable proportion of them agreed to pay for it.

Pharmaceutical care and telemedicine during COVID-19: A cross-sectional study based on pharmacy students, pharmacists, and physicians in Jordan

“…A comprehensive literature review was performed to develop the questionnaire (Shafie and Hassali 2010;Perraudin et al 2011;El Hajj et al 2014;Katoue et al 2014a;Abd Ghani and Jaber 2015;Baral et al 2019;Jaber et al 2019;Alsayed et al 2022a). Before being sent to participants, an initial draft of the questionnaire was produced in English language using variables derived from the literature.…”

Evidências sobre serviços farmacêuticos relacionados ao tratamento da Covid-19: Revisão integrativa

“…Embora mais de dois terços dos médicos tenham importância do farmacêutico na consolidação do tratamento eficiente, sendo os responsáveis pela atualização e especialização perante o uso do medicamento apropriado, promovendo o cuidado em saúde e o melhor desfecho ao paciente. Passos, et al, (2021) Alsayed et al, (2022), destacam a importância de desenvolver serviços de aconselhamento e revisão de medicamentos, bem como definir um valor monetário de referência para as taxas de inicialização desses serviços. Os participantes acreditam que os farmacêuticos devem fornecer mais papéis de aconselhamento em vez de apenas dispensar medicamentos.…”

Validation of an assessment, medical problem-oriented plan, and care plan tools for demonstrating the clinical pharmacist's activities

“…It is critical for clinical pharmacists to utilize a systematic documentation and classification system when reporting medical problems ( Hepler and Strand, 1990 , AbuRuz et al, 2006 , Cipolle, 2012 , Hohmann et al, 2012 , Chia et al, 2015 ). Today, the pharmacist's duty has expanded to encompass more specialized fields ( Khader et al, 2021 , Alsayed et al, 2022 ). The pharmacist must be well-educated on the most up-to-date and reliable knowledge pertaining to the profession of pharmacy from reliable sources.…”