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Thursday, August 27, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
ROLE OF PHARMACIST IN SAFE USE OF MEDICINE
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ROLE OF PHARMACIST IN SAFE USE OF MEDICINES
Swasthsya Swaasthyarakshanam" i.e. to maintain the positive health of a healthy person and "Aaturasya Vikarprashanam" i.e. to cure the disease of the patient.
The fundamental philosophy of pharmacy says that suffering is disease and contentment is good health. No human being can be called healthy if he does not posses a sound sharira, (body), a sound mana (mind) and a sound ama (soul). And even though if any body falls prey to disease the ultimate reference is of MEDICINE. Although medicines are useful in curing ailments, they are foreign substances. If not used with care it can do more harmful effects than its advantages. So from 3 decades role of pharmacist is emerging for catering modulating needs of society. And in present scenario, proper role & involvement of pharmacist in safe use of medicine is very crucial. The common view about pharmacy is “compounding & dispensing of medicines.” And even if we ask pharmacist about him , answer will be the same. Means we are not knowing ‘what we are?’
Role of pharmacist;
As we know that main role of pharmacist is compounding, preparing and dispensing of medicine. With these roles it also provides another roles like….
Role in Patient counseling: It is interpersonal communication between pharmacist & patient regarding disease, medication, & lifestyle modification. It deals with providing information, advice & assistance about medication therapy either orally or to their representatives. Thus pharmacist should set up consultation room for counseling purpose.
Role in rational use of drug: In recent scenario, rational use of drug is an utmost issue. WHO defines rational use of drug as “patient receive medication appropriate to their clinical needs, in doses –which meet their individual requirement for adequate period of time, at lowest cost to them & their society.”
Role in preventing drug/medicine abuse; Drug abuse may be due to the wrong diagnosis, in appropriate drug selection, wrong dosage schedule unwarranted prophylactic use, polypharmacy, drug-drug interaction, drug food interaction, self medication with prescription or OTC drug etc… By providing clear information and advices about the adverse effects of medication, pharmacist can play a key role in preventing drug abuse .
Role in self care & self medication : Self medication is the selection and use of medicines by individuals to treat their self recognized illness or symptoms. Reasons behind self medication are socioeconomic consideration, life style, accessibility, demographic and epidemiologic factors. Pharmacist can play very important role in self care and self medication of patients by providing them necessary information about drug especially OTC drugs.
Role in combating counterfeit of drugs: According to WHO, counterfeiting related to medicinal products means deliberate and fraudulent mislabeling with respect to identity, composition or source of finished product or ingredient for its preparation. Pharmacist should play important role in counterfeiting by asserting to implement WHO/FIP/national good pharmacy practice guidelines for combating counterfeit drugs. As a community/hospital pharmacist, he should purchase medicinal products only from the reputed vendors. Pharmacist is also expected to be alert and abreast in differentiating quality of package/label of authentic products from spurious ones and if ones suspected to be counterfeit, he should isolate and withhold supply of drug.
Role in evidence based medicines: Recently herbal medicines (evidence based medicines) are getting widespread in India as well as in abroad as an important alternate therapy in health care so similar to synthetic medicines, herbal medicines would also undergo long expensive and complex clinical trials and it should be carefully monitored by well familiar pharmacist having critical attitude so as to evident the therapeutics benefits of such medicines
Role in preventing drug interactions: Some medicines can interact with other medicines, foods and dietary supplements so, they don’t show their expected effect or may cause unpleasant and adverse reaction. So, preventing drug interaction there should be a health care management and it must be followed by pharmacist like Patient profile ,avoiding complex therapeutic regimen, patient profile should be reevaluated. Also probability of drug interaction should be determined.
Role in treating common ailments like common cold, headache or in contraception etc….
Role in providing health screening services: Pharmacist should have liaison with doctor in providing health screening services like blood glucose estimation, recording blood pressure, estimation of cholesterol and calculating body mass index in obese patients and advising them to reduce weight. These attempts to provide health screening services will enhance the image of pharmacist as a professional.
Role in geriatric and infant care-welfare of special patient group: The pharmacist delivers attentive services for welfare of special patient groups like pregnant women, elderly patients, children, those having hearing and visual problems or those taking multiple medications. This is the challenging task as children are more delicate and different from adults. Pharmacist need to deal by drug therapy monitoring by dexterous pharmacist for special age patients due to modified pharmacokinetics parameters.
Role In drug information centers: Due to emergence of information communication technology (ICT) information of libraries and literature is now available to our desktops. In India, number of drug information centers has been established & in this pharmacist play very important and crucial role in disseminating unbiased drug information. Information provided by drug information centre is reliable, evidence based and current which leads to quality of patient care and improved patient outcome.
Role in improving patient compliance: Patient compliance is defined as the extent to which patient’s actual dosing history corresponds to the prescribed drug regimen. Infact half of patients leaving doctor’s office with prescriptions but do not take medicines as directed. The main reason behind this is poor patient-doctor communication. Thus, there is need to improve patient compliance. Pharmacist can educate patients appropriately. He provides sufficient information to patients about medicines that the patient is going to consume. He suggests in correct way, correct dosage and correct duration of time. He also explains benefits of complying with medication and adverse consequences of non-compliance.
Following are the reasons for why the above said roles are avoided by Indian Pharmacist.
Role of pharmacist not legalized by Government
Isolation of pharmacist
We Focus only on product
Lack of motivation
Also for dispensing medicine, having regulatory control
WHAT TO DO FOR EXPANDING ROLE OF PHARMACIST
-pharmacist should make consultation centers for services like disease prevention strategies like disease prevention strategies, health screening services, chronic disease management etc.
-shifting of workload- for giving pharmacist more time to do more counseling and health promotion, technicians must be more effectively utilized.
-changes in legislations & practice models.
-there should be some fees for giving consultancy & information about ADR & dose regimen.
-unlike hospital pharmacist community pharmacist have inadequate access to diagnosis medical history, laboratory values & drug history. And this is critical to better utilize pharmacist.
CONCLUSION
Pharmacist is one of the inevitable member of the healthcare team who can help for achieving goal of rational use of drug by following good pharmacy practices. Thus this resulting to improved quality of life and increase accesiblity of drug and leads to better quality of life. If pharmacist do not rise on this occasion & accept these challenges to serve mankind by ensuring safe use of medicines, they will be blamed forever for the disastrous results.
ROLE OF PHARMACIST IN SAFE USE OF MEDICINES
Swasthsya Swaasthyarakshanam" i.e. to maintain the positive health of a healthy person and "Aaturasya Vikarprashanam" i.e. to cure the disease of the patient.
The fundamental philosophy of pharmacy says that suffering is disease and contentment is good health. No human being can be called healthy if he does not posses a sound sharira, (body), a sound mana (mind) and a sound ama (soul). And even though if any body falls prey to disease the ultimate reference is of MEDICINE. Although medicines are useful in curing ailments, they are foreign substances. If not used with care it can do more harmful effects than its advantages. So from 3 decades role of pharmacist is emerging for catering modulating needs of society. And in present scenario, proper role & involvement of pharmacist in safe use of medicine is very crucial. The common view about pharmacy is “compounding & dispensing of medicines.” And even if we ask pharmacist about him , answer will be the same. Means we are not knowing ‘what we are?’
Role of pharmacist;
As we know that main role of pharmacist is compounding, preparing and dispensing of medicine. With these roles it also provides another roles like….
Role in Patient counseling: It is interpersonal communication between pharmacist & patient regarding disease, medication, & lifestyle modification. It deals with providing information, advice & assistance about medication therapy either orally or to their representatives. Thus pharmacist should set up consultation room for counseling purpose.
Role in rational use of drug: In recent scenario, rational use of drug is an utmost issue. WHO defines rational use of drug as “patient receive medication appropriate to their clinical needs, in doses –which meet their individual requirement for adequate period of time, at lowest cost to them & their society.”
Role in preventing drug/medicine abuse; Drug abuse may be due to the wrong diagnosis, in appropriate drug selection, wrong dosage schedule unwarranted prophylactic use, polypharmacy, drug-drug interaction, drug food interaction, self medication with prescription or OTC drug etc… By providing clear information and advices about the adverse effects of medication, pharmacist can play a key role in preventing drug abuse .
Role in self care & self medication : Self medication is the selection and use of medicines by individuals to treat their self recognized illness or symptoms. Reasons behind self medication are socioeconomic consideration, life style, accessibility, demographic and epidemiologic factors. Pharmacist can play very important role in self care and self medication of patients by providing them necessary information about drug especially OTC drugs.
Role in combating counterfeit of drugs: According to WHO, counterfeiting related to medicinal products means deliberate and fraudulent mislabeling with respect to identity, composition or source of finished product or ingredient for its preparation. Pharmacist should play important role in counterfeiting by asserting to implement WHO/FIP/national good pharmacy practice guidelines for combating counterfeit drugs. As a community/hospital pharmacist, he should purchase medicinal products only from the reputed vendors. Pharmacist is also expected to be alert and abreast in differentiating quality of package/label of authentic products from spurious ones and if ones suspected to be counterfeit, he should isolate and withhold supply of drug.
Role in evidence based medicines: Recently herbal medicines (evidence based medicines) are getting widespread in India as well as in abroad as an important alternate therapy in health care so similar to synthetic medicines, herbal medicines would also undergo long expensive and complex clinical trials and it should be carefully monitored by well familiar pharmacist having critical attitude so as to evident the therapeutics benefits of such medicines
Role in preventing drug interactions: Some medicines can interact with other medicines, foods and dietary supplements so, they don’t show their expected effect or may cause unpleasant and adverse reaction. So, preventing drug interaction there should be a health care management and it must be followed by pharmacist like Patient profile ,avoiding complex therapeutic regimen, patient profile should be reevaluated. Also probability of drug interaction should be determined.
Role in treating common ailments like common cold, headache or in contraception etc….
Role in providing health screening services: Pharmacist should have liaison with doctor in providing health screening services like blood glucose estimation, recording blood pressure, estimation of cholesterol and calculating body mass index in obese patients and advising them to reduce weight. These attempts to provide health screening services will enhance the image of pharmacist as a professional.
Role in geriatric and infant care-welfare of special patient group: The pharmacist delivers attentive services for welfare of special patient groups like pregnant women, elderly patients, children, those having hearing and visual problems or those taking multiple medications. This is the challenging task as children are more delicate and different from adults. Pharmacist need to deal by drug therapy monitoring by dexterous pharmacist for special age patients due to modified pharmacokinetics parameters.
Role In drug information centers: Due to emergence of information communication technology (ICT) information of libraries and literature is now available to our desktops. In India, number of drug information centers has been established & in this pharmacist play very important and crucial role in disseminating unbiased drug information. Information provided by drug information centre is reliable, evidence based and current which leads to quality of patient care and improved patient outcome.
Role in improving patient compliance: Patient compliance is defined as the extent to which patient’s actual dosing history corresponds to the prescribed drug regimen. Infact half of patients leaving doctor’s office with prescriptions but do not take medicines as directed. The main reason behind this is poor patient-doctor communication. Thus, there is need to improve patient compliance. Pharmacist can educate patients appropriately. He provides sufficient information to patients about medicines that the patient is going to consume. He suggests in correct way, correct dosage and correct duration of time. He also explains benefits of complying with medication and adverse consequences of non-compliance.
Following are the reasons for why the above said roles are avoided by Indian Pharmacist.
Role of pharmacist not legalized by Government
Isolation of pharmacist
We Focus only on product
Lack of motivation
Also for dispensing medicine, having regulatory control
WHAT TO DO FOR EXPANDING ROLE OF PHARMACIST
-pharmacist should make consultation centers for services like disease prevention strategies like disease prevention strategies, health screening services, chronic disease management etc.
-shifting of workload- for giving pharmacist more time to do more counseling and health promotion, technicians must be more effectively utilized.
-changes in legislations & practice models.
-there should be some fees for giving consultancy & information about ADR & dose regimen.
-unlike hospital pharmacist community pharmacist have inadequate access to diagnosis medical history, laboratory values & drug history. And this is critical to better utilize pharmacist.
CONCLUSION
Pharmacist is one of the inevitable member of the healthcare team who can help for achieving goal of rational use of drug by following good pharmacy practices. Thus this resulting to improved quality of life and increase accesiblity of drug and leads to better quality of life. If pharmacist do not rise on this occasion & accept these challenges to serve mankind by ensuring safe use of medicines, they will be blamed forever for the disastrous results.
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