Unlicensed "Special" Medicines: Using the Pillar Integration Model to Understand Stakeholder Perspectives Across Care Settings.

Background: The use of unlicensed medicines has been associated with safety concerns, availability and accessibility issues, and lack of integrated care across care settings.

Objective: To understand the interaction between the views and experiences of those who prescribe, those who supply and those who receive unlicensed "special" medicines, so that factors affecting the patient journey and successful treatment can be identified and used to inform areas for change.

Methods: A qualitative, phenomenological approach was adopted, with semi-structured interviews with prescribers, community pharmacy staff and patients.

Clinical outcomes following acute sore throat assessment at community pharmacy versus general practice: a retrospective, longitudinal, data linkage study.

Background: To date, no research has compared longer-term outcomes (antibiotic provision; re-consultations; hospital admissions for quinsy; cost-effectiveness) following presentation with acute sore throat at general practice (GP) versus newer, pharmacy-led services.

Methods: A retrospective, longitudinal cohort study of sore throat consultations between 1 November 2018 and 28 February 2020 either with the Wales pharmacy-led sore throat test and treat (STTT) service or with a healthcare professional at GP. Individual-level pharmacy consultation data from the national Choose Pharmacy IT application were securely uploaded to the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage Databank and linked to routinely collected, anonymized, population-scale, individual-level, anonymized health and administrative data.

Over-the-counter antibiotics compromising aminoglycoside activity.

Introduction: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global issue that needs addressing. While antibiotic stewardship has improved often by restricting antibiotic use, some antibiotics that are still sold legally over the counter (OTC), notably in sore throat medications. Recent findings suggest OTC antibiotics could trigger cross-resistance to antibiotics used in clinical treatments, whether systemic or topical.

Correction: Internet Tool to Support Self-Assessment and Self-Swabbing of Sore Throat: Development and Feasibility Study.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.2196/39791.].

Can a mock medication-taking learning activity enable pharmacy students to experience the range of barriers and facilitators to medication adherence? An analysis informed by the Theoretical Domains Framework and COM-B model.

Background: Pharmacy professionals are well-placed to provide medication adherence support to patients. The Capability, Opportunity, Motivation-Behaviour (COM-B) and Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) are two complementary models previously applied to medication-taking behaviour. Understanding the patient-specific barriers and facilitators to adherence using psychological frameworks from the early stages of pharmacy education enables the design and delivery of effective interventions.