Clinical practice
Overview
Clinical pharmacy is a health specialty in which the health professional is active in developing and promoting the rational and appropriate use of medicinal products and devices in a range of settings where medicines are prescribed and used.
Pharmacy with a clinical orientation focuses on the analysis of population needs with regards to medicines, ways of administration, patterns of use and drugs’ effects on patients.
In order to promote the correct and appropriate use of medicinal products and devices, clinical practitioners seek to:
- maximise the clinical effect of medicines, ie using the most effective treatment for each patient type.
- minimise the risk of treatment-induced adverse events, ie monitoring the therapy course and patients’ compliance with therapy.
- minimise the cost of pharmacological treatments to the NHS and to patients.
What the group does
This multi-disciplinary group investigates the factors influencing and informing the clinical practice of pharmacists within community, hospital and other settings.
These include a number of aspects, including:
- patient compliance/concordance;
- clinical audits;
- management of long-term/chronic conditions such as cardiovascular problems, diabetes, asthma, and COPD);
- patients’ ability to understand the role of medication in their treatment;
- supporting particular patient groups (e.g. those with learning disabilities, epilepsy, mental health issues).
Practical training based on evidence is also key to the clinical effectiveness of of such interventions, thus there is an interest by the group in the research which informs such areas.
Key projects
The clinical practice group has a number of areas of interest which members monitor on a regular basis, including:
- the impact of Community Pharmacy Diabetes Monitoring Programmes on Diabetes-related Outcomes in Primary Care.
- evaluation of Community Pharmacy Enhanced Services.
- clinical/safety audits, medication reviews.
Key grant awards
Centre researchers have recently completed a randomized, controlled, pilot study on the role of local community pharmacists providing an enhanced care package, compared vs. typical GP care, in supporting diabetes type 2 clients.
A preliminary draft of this study has been the finalist in a recent General Pharmaceutical Council competition for best practice research studies. A second draft of this paper has been published online by a peer reviewed International journal (Diabetes Medicine).
At present, the group is focussing on presenting the above model involving the enhanced care package provided by community pharmacists to the Department of Health’s Chief Scientific Officer. The model, which has been successfully implemented with the help of Manor Pharmacy, is viewed as an example of good practice in the provision of diagnostic/clinical services in primary care.
The group aims to provide the Department of Health with a description of the benefits that such model could bring if implemented more widely, together with the difficulties that have been encountered and the lessons that have been learnt along the way.
A multi-site, stratified sampling, controlled study, research grant application is being drafted at present to better understand if the very encouraging results observed in the pilot study recently published can be confirmed in larger scale, UK-wide, studies.