Impact of pharmacist-delivered interventions on pain-related outcomes: An umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

INTRODUCTION: Pain is a significant healthcare challenge, impacting millions worldwide. Pharmacists have increasingly taken on expanded roles in managing pain, particularly in primary and ambulatory care contexts. This umbrella review aims to systematically evaluate evidence from published systematic reviews that explore the impact of pharmacist-delivered interventions on clinical, humanistic, and economic outcomes related to pain. METHODS: A systematic search was conducted across six electronic databases, including Ovid Embase, MEDLINE, CINAHL, Scopus, CENTRAL, APA PsycINFO, and DARE, from inception until June 2023. Prior to inclusion, two independent reviewers assessed study titles and abstracts. Following inclusion, an assessment of the methodological quality of the included studies was conducted. AMSTAR 2 was used to evaluate the methodological quality of the included SRs. RESULTS: From 2055 retrieved titles, 11 systematic reviews were included, with 5 out of 11 being meta-analyses. These SRs encompassed diverse pharmacist-led interventions such as education, medication reviews, and multi-component strategies targeting various facets of pain management. These findings showed favorable clinical outcomes, including reduced pain intensity, improved medication management, enhanced overall physical and mental well-being, and reduced hospitalization durations. Significant pain intensity reductions were found due to pharmacists' interventions, with standardized mean differences (SMDs) ranging from -0.76 to -0.22 across different studies and subgroups. Physical functioning improvements were observed, with SMDs ranging from -0.38 to 1.03. Positive humanistic outcomes were also reported, such as increased healthcare provider confidence, patient satisfaction, and quality of life (QoL). QoL improvements were reported, with SMDs ranging from 0.29 to 1.03. Three systematic reviews examined pharmacist interventions' impact on pain-related economic outcomes, highlighting varying cost implications and the need for robust research methodologies to capture costs and benefits. CONCLUSION: This umbrella review highlights the effectiveness of pharmacist-delivered interventions in improving clinical, humanistic, and economic outcomes related to pain management. Existing evidence emphasises on the need to integrate pharamacists into multi-disciplinary pain management teams. Further research is needed to investigate innovative care models, such as pharmacist-independent prescribing initiatives within collaborative pain management clinics.

Scoping of pharmacists' health leadership training needs for effective antimicrobial stewardship in Africa.

BACKGROUND: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global public health concern currently mitigated by antimicrobial stewardship (AMS). Pharmacists are strategically placed to lead AMS actions that contribute to responsible use of antimicrobials; however, this is undermined by an acknowledged health leadership skills deficit. Learning from the UK's Chief Pharmaceutical Officer's Global Health (ChPOGH) Fellowship programme, the Commonwealth Pharmacists Association (CPA) is focused to develop a health leadership training program for pharmacists in eight sub-Saharan African countries. This study thus explores need-based leadership training needs for pharmacists to provide effective AMS and inform the CPA's development of a focused leadership training programme, the 'Commonwealth Partnerships in AMS, Health Leadership Programme' (CwPAMS/LP). METHODS: A mixed methods approach was undertaken. Quantitative data were collected via a survey across 8 sub-Saharan African countries and descriptively analysed. Qualitative data were collected through 5 virtual focus group discussions, held between February and July 2021, involving stakeholder pharmacists from different sectors in the 8 countries and were analysed thematically. Data were triangulated to determine priority areas for the training programme. RESULTS: The quantitative phase produced 484 survey responses. Focus groups had 40 participants from the 8 countries. Data analysis revealed a clear need for a health leadership programme, with 61% of respondents finding previous leadership training programmes highly beneficial or beneficial. A proportion of survey participants (37%) and the focus groups highlighted poor access to leadership training opportunities in their countries. Clinical pharmacy (34%) and health leadership (31%) were ranked as the two highest priority areas for further training of pharmacists. Within these priority areas, strategic thinking (65%), clinical knowledge (57%), coaching and mentoring (51%), and project management (58%) were selected as the most important. CONCLUSIONS: The study highlights the training needs of pharmacists and priority focus areas for health leadership to advance AMS within the African context. Context-specific identification of priority areas supports a needs-based approach to programme development, maximising African pharmacists' contribution to AMS for improved and sustainable patient outcomes. This study recommends incorporating conflict management, behaviour change techniques, and advocacy, amongst others, as areas of focus to train pharmacist leaders to contribute to AMS effectively.

Hydroxyurea- a cost effective treatment in developing countries for Atypical Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (aCML): Case Report of Two Patients.

INTRODUCTION: Atypical chronic myeloid leukaemia (aCML) is a rare chronic myeloproliferative disorder with a poor prognosis. CASE REPORT: This case report presents two cases of male geriatric patients, both referred from primary care in rural areas and received at an urban clinic in a tertiary care hospital on separate instances. The first patient complained of low-grade fever (on/off), generalized body aches, rapid weight loss and shortness of breath for the last 2 months. The second patient arrived pale looking with symptoms of generalized body aches, dizziness and anorexia. Both patients were diagnosed to have aCML according to the World Health organization criteria. MANAGEMENT & OUTCOME: Both the patients were from a low economic bracket and were treated with Hydroxyurea a relatively economic medicine successfully. The follow-up lasted for 12 months in both cases. No progression to acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) or relapse was observed. DISCUSSION: This case report shows the promising results of Hydroxyurea in treating aCML and can be a cost effective alternate to other expensive treatments (allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation) and expensive medicines in lower and middle-income countries especially for resource-limited patients. These two cases show promising evidence for further studies to evaluate and conduct pharmaco-economic evaluations as well as clinical trials to compare hydroxyurea with other available alternative treatments for an affordable therapeutic option towards prevention of relapse and disease free survival after aCML.

Utility of unidimensional and functional pain assessment tools in adult postoperative patients: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: We aimed to appraise the evidence relating to the measurement properties of unidimensional tools to quantify pain after surgery. Furthermore, we wished to identify the tools used to assess interference of pain with functional recovery. METHODS: Four electronic sources (MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO) were searched in August 2020. Two reviewers independently screened articles and assessed risk of bias using the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) checklist. RESULTS: Thirty-one studies with a total of 12 498 participants were included. Most of the studies failed to meet the methodological quality standards required by COSMIN. Studies of unidimensional assessment tools were underpinned by low-quality evidence for reliability (five studies), and responsiveness (seven studies). Convergent validity was the most studied property (13 studies) with moderate to high correlation ranging from 0.5 to 0.9 between unidimensional tools. Interpretability results were available only for the visual analogue scale (seven studies) and numerical rating scale (four studies). Studies on functional assessment tools were scarce; only one study included an 'Objective Pain Score,' a tool assessing pain interference with respiratory function, and it had low-quality for convergent validity. CONCLUSIONS: This systematic review challenges the validity and reliability of unidimensional tools in adult patients after surgery. We found no evidence that any one unidimensional tool has superior measurement properties in assessing postoperative pain. In addition, because promoting function is a crucial perioperative goal, psychometric validation studies of functional pain assessment tools are needed to improve pain assessment and management. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: PROSPERO CRD42020213495.

National pharmacy associations in the commonwealth: current scenario and future needs to maximise effective contributions of the pharmacy profession towards universal health coverage.

BACKGROUND: The Commonwealth Pharmacists Association (CPA) is a charity representing pharmacists across the Commonwealth, with the vision of empowering and collaboratively develop the profession and fully utilise the potential of pharmacists to strengthen health systems through supporting better access to, quality and use of medicines and related services. Commonwealth comprises predominantly of low- and middle-income countries, where limited data often exists in pharmacy practice. There is a recognised need across the Commonwealth to focus on developing, implementing and fully utilising pharmacy professional services to progress universal health coverage and achieve the sustainable development goals, particularly in low and middle-income countries; however, currently a knowledge gap exists in understanding the national priorities in Commonwealth nations. CPA is ideally positioned to access to these nations. The aim of this study was thus to explore the priorities and focus areas of NPAs across the Commonwealth and create evidence for a needs-based approach to inform the support that the Commonwealth pharmacists association can collaboratively and strategically provide to its members to progress towards shared goals. METHODS: Data were collected virtually on Zoom by conducting interviews using a semi-structured interview guide developed for this study with CPA councillors representing NPAs or their equivalents if no official body existed. An inductive, reflexive, thematic analysis was performed for data analysis. RESULTS: In total, 30 councillors were interviewed from 30 low- and medium-income countries. The three main overarching priority areas identified across respective Commonwealth nations developing extended pharmacy services, improving pharmacy education, and developing and redefining the role of NPAs. CONCLUSIONS: This novel study highlights the collective priorities for the pharmacy profession across the low and middle-income countries of the Commonwealth and the urgent need for supporting NPAs around the three identified overarching priority areas. The mapped-out priorities will inform an evidence-based approach for the CPA to better support NPAs in their mission through advocacy and practitioner development, to fully harness pharmacists' unique skill set and maximise their contribution to progressing universal health coverage.

Cost-effectiveness of using Quantiferon Gold (QFT-G)® versus tuberculin skin test (TST) among U.S. and foreign born populations at a public health department clinic with a low prevalence of tuberculosis.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine the cost benefit to routinely using QFT-G versus the standard TST for screening U.S. and foreign born populations at a public health department clinic with a low prevalence of tuberculosis. DESIGN AND SAMPLE: A comparative cost analysis of the monetization between QFT-G and TST was conducted: Data from the health department's Chest Clinic patients seen in 2007 were used to model cost predictions. MEASURES: The net costs of screening, x-rays, the standard 9 months of latent tuberculosis infection treatment, laboratory, and administration for U.S. born patients and foreign born patients were investigated. RESULTS: There are no apparent cost savings for U.S. born individuals, but due to the higher specificity of QFT-G for foreign born BCG-vaccinated individuals, there are unnecessary expenditures associated with the higher number of false positives incurred when using TST compared with QFT-G on 1,000 foreign born individuals (69%, 18%). CONCLUSION: QFT-G is cost-effective and should be used at local health department clinics that want to achieve savings in screening and treating those suspected of having TB infection, especially for high-risk populations such as foreign born individuals.

Racial disparities in breast cancer survival: an analysis by age and stage.

BACKGROUND: Black women often present with advanced-stage breast cancer compared with White women, which may result in the observed higher mortality among Black women. Age-related factors (e.g., comorbidity) also affect mortality. Whether racial disparities in mortality are evident within age and/or stage groups has not been reported, and risk factors for greater mortality among Black women are not well defined. METHODS: Using the 1988-2003 Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program data, we conducted a retrospective, population-based cohort study to compare overall and stage-specific breast-cancer mortality between Black and White women within each age (<40, 40-49, 50-64, and 65+) and stage (stage 0-IV and unstaged) group at diagnosis. Cox regression models calculated unadjusted and adjusted hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI), the latter controlling for potential confounders of the relationship between race and survival. RESULTS: In the 1988-2003 Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results data, 20,424 Black and 204,506 White women were diagnosed with first primary breast cancer. In unadjusted models, Black women were more likely than White women to die from breast cancer (HR: 1.90; 95% CI: 1.83-1.96) and from all causes (HR: 1.52; 95% CI: 1.48-1.55) during follow-up. In models stratified by age and stage, Black women were at increased risk of breast-cancer-specific mortality within each stage group among women <65 y. CONCLUSION: Racial disparities in breast-cancer-specific mortality were predominantly observed within each stage at diagnosis among women <65 y old. This greater mortality risk for Black women was largely not observed among women >or=65 y of age.