When fear and misinformation go viral: Pharmacists' role in deterring medication misinformation during the 'infodemic' surrounding COVID-19.

The world has faced an unprecedented challenge when coronavirus (COVID-19) emerged as a pandemic. Millions of people have contracted the virus and a significant number of them lost their lives, resulting in a tremendous social and economic shock across the globe. Amid the growing burden of the pandemic, there are parallel emergencies that need to be simultaneously tackled: the proliferation of fake medicines, fake news and medication misinformation surrounding COVID-19. Pharmacists are key health professionals with the required skills and training to contribute to the fight against these emergencies. Primarily, they can be a relevant source of accurate and reliable information to the public or other fellow health professionals thereby reducing the spread of COVID-19 medication misinformation. This can be achieved by providing accurate and reliable information based on recommendations given by relevant health authorities and professional associations to make sure the community understand the importance of the message and thus minimise the detrimental consequences of the pandemic. This commentary aims to summarise the existing literature in relation to the promising treatments currently under trial, the perils of falsified medications and medicine-related information and the role of pharmacists in taking a leading role in combating these parallel global emergencies.

The impact of pharmacist-led medication therapy management on medication adherence in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a randomized controlled study.

BACKGROUND: Poor adherence to antidiabetic medications leads to a higher rate of hospital admissions and adverse health outcomes in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate whether a pharmacist-led medication therapy management, compared to the usual care, could enhance medication adherence and reduce hospital admission in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. METHODS: A prospective randomized controlled study was conducted in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus from February 1 to July 30, 2016. Patients in the control group (n=65) received the usual care while patients in the intervention group (n=62) received a personalized pharmacotherapeutic care plan and diabetes education. The two groups were compared by repeated measure ANOVA at 3 and 6-months with medication adherence (using Morisky medication adherence scale) and number of hospital admissions as the main outcome variables. RESULTS: A total of 127 patients were included in the study. A marked and statistically significant increase in medication adherence from baseline to 3 and 6 months were noted in the intervention group (increased from 9.2% at baseline to 61% at 6 month) compared with the control group (increased from 13.2% at baseline (to 30.2% at 6 month; p-value<0.01). Furthermore, at the 6-month follow-up, only 23 patients in MTM group with poorly controlled blood glucose levels resulted in hospital admissions compared to 48 patients in non-MTM group, resulting in a 52.1% fewer hospital admissions (p< 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study implied that pharmacist-led medication therapy management might improve medication adherence and reduce number of hospitalizations in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Hence, policies and guidelines should be in place in order for clinical pharmacists to fully engage in patient care and improve the medication therapy outcomes.