Diabetes pharmacy management: balancing safety, cost, and outcomes.
(9/15)
Medication nonadherence, clinical inertia, and contradictory clinical evidence on aggressive disease management contribute to poor outcomes in diabetes management, leading to increased healthcare utilization and costs. As plans increase their focus on the management of type 2 diabetes as an area of high healthcare resource utilization, the importance of appropriate antihyperglycemic agent selection is receiving more attention. The selection process is further complicated by the crowded diabetes drug category, which features several agents with diverse mechanisms of action and routes of administration. The choice of specific antihyperglycemic agents should be predicated on their effectiveness in lowering glucose levels, extraglycemic effects that may reduce long-term complications, safety profiles, tolerability, ease of use, and expense. Beyond appropriate drug selection, pharmacy benefit design also represents an important public health tool for improving treatment adherence and outcomes. Value-based benefit design, in particular, emphasizes high-value medical services by lowering patient copays to encourage plan member use. Essentially, this innovative form of benefit design dictates that the more clinically beneficial the therapy, the lower patients' cost share will be. Other interventions, such as motivational interviewing, pay-for-performance, and medication therapy management, are also being applied to improve treatment adherence and outcomes in the managed care environment, with varying levels of success. Regardless of the specific inventions applied at health plans for improving treatment success in type 2 diabetes, pharmacy director leadership and involvement can contribute to the success of these efforts. (+info)
The status of PhD education in economic, social, and administrative sciences between 2005 and 2008.
(10/15)
OBJECTIVES: To describe the funding, education, enrollment, and graduation patterns from economic, social, and administrative sciences PhD programs in colleges and schools of pharmacy in the United States. METHODS: Economic, social, and administrative sciences PhD programs were identified from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Web site. A 41-item online survey instrument was sent to the director of graduate studies of each identified program. Only programs offering a PhD degree were included in the study. RESULTS: Of the 26 programs surveyed, 20 (77%) provided useable responses to the survey instrument. Approximately 91% of PhD programs guarantee funding to incoming students with an average commitment of 2.9 years. On average, students were paid a stipend of $18,000 per year for commitments to research and teaching assistantships, each averaging approximately 2 years in length. Programs admitted an average of 3.5 students per year and graduated approximately 85% of entering students. The majority of students are non-US citizens and accept positions in either academic or industrial positions after graduation. CONCLUSIONS: Most economic, social, and administrative sciences PhD programs guarantee funding to incoming PhD candidates. Programs offering funding packages significantly below the average may be at a competitive disadvantage. It is unclear whether the number of students graduating from PhD programs is adequate to fulfill academic and industrial needs. (+info)
A mass merchandiser's role in enhancing pharmacy students' business plan development skills for medication therapy management services.
(11/15)
Second report on the organization of pharmacology in Great Britain.
(13/15)
1 A questionnaire was sent to 150 departments employing pharmacologists including all those academic departments teaching pharmacology, in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and all industrial firms and research institutes engaged in pharmacological (27) and toxicological (38) work. All questionnaires were completed. The returns refer to the situation on 1st January 1972.2 There were 1,104 pharmacologists, of whom 652 were established staff, 383 were research staff and students, and 29 visiting workers. Of the staff in established posts, 192 were in medical schools, 81 in other university departments, 75 in other non-university departments and 28 in toxicology departments. Forty pharmacologists were established in other research units.3 Since 1964, 11 B.Sc. (Pharmacology) courses have been started. In 1971-72 there were 69 students in the final year of all B.Sc. Pharmacology courses. By 1974-75, 134 students are expected in the final year of these courses.4 Of 413 students specializing in pharmacology who graduated in 1971, 74% had taken a pharmacy qualification. Overall, 26% continued in academic courses, 11% went into industry, 56% into hospital or retail pharmacy. Only 1% were unemployed.5 Of 68 students completing postgraduate courses in pharmacology in 1971, 20% went into university teaching, 26% into industry and only 1% were unemployed. At present there are 260 students in postgraduate training in pharmacology departments.6 During 1970 and 1971 appointments exceeded losses in all sections giving an overall annual gain of 58.5. The total demand was estimated at 73 per year over this time. The predicted size of pharmacology departments in 1974-75 could lead to a maximum annual demand of 95 per year for these next three years.7 Up to January 1972, the supply of, and demand for pharmacologists seems to have been near balance from the unemployment and vacancy rates reported.However, in 1971, the supply of pharmacologists exceeded significantly the identifiable demand from pharmacology and toxicology departments. Thus there was a considerable demand from unknown employers. In the future there will be a considerable increase in the supply of specialist pharmacologists. We cannot predict if this will be balanced by demand in the absence of information about the growth in demand from the unknown employers.8 Taking the number of professors as an index of academic status, pharmacology has improved its standing, especially in the non-medical school departments. Now there are 40 professors in 51 departments compared with 25 in 42 departments in 1964.9 Overall, the composition of departments has not changed much since 1964. Academic departments still draw on each other for their pharmacologists whereas industrial departments draw equally from other industrial departments and academic departments. The total proportion of medically qualified pharmacologists has fallen to 14% (from 25% in 1964) and these pharmacologists are still concentrated heavily in medical school departments. In industrial departments, only 3% have a medical qualification.10From the replies of 94 out of 410 recent graduates specializing in pharmacology, the courses are in general interesting and effective. However, both students and employers considered that not enough statistics and mathematics as applied to pharmacology were taught. Of the respondents, 84% also wanted more teaching on the clinical use of drugs. (+info)
The view from managed care pharmacy.
(14/15)
This stratified, national telephone survey of fifty-one managed care organizations concerns the perspectives of managed care pharmacy directors on pharmacoeconomics, disease management, and the roles of the pharmaceutical industry and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Respondents rated clinical effectiveness assessments as most useful, cost-effectiveness assessments second, and quality-of-life assessments as least useful. Peer-reviewed and industry literature were rated as equally important for decision making. Most plans would consider establishing a partnership with a drug company for disease management, if they have not already done so. Most plans (76 percent) support some form of FDA regulation of pharmacoeconomic claims. Conversely, 69 percent favor either no regulation (24 percent) or less stringent regulation (45 percent) than exists today. (+info)
A simplified radiopharmaceutical accountability record-keeping system.
(15/15)
A comprehensive system has been developed to ensure that a patient receives the proper radiopharmaceutical dose and that records of accountability are conveniently maintained. A radiopharmacy assay/utilization record serves as the control document for source products and derived new products. Color-coded numbered labels are used to maintain accountability among source products, derived products, prescriptions, logbooks, and patient doses. These measures have proved effective in simplifying documentation, minimizing dose-administration errors, and providing for radiopharmaceutical accountability. (+info)