Developing great research questions.

Purpose: The process for developing a good research question is described.

Summary: Three steps comprise the formulation of a great research question: (1) ask interesting questions, (2) select the best question for research, and (3) transform the research question into a testable hypothesis. Research is designed to generate information that cannot be gained from any other source.

Pharmacy practice-based research networks: why, what, who, and how.

Objectives: To describe practice innovations that can lead to measurable advances in the safety and effectiveness of medication use and to recommend a course of action that is likely to lead to practicable improvements in the medication use system.

Data Sources: Proceedings of a national conference; review of the medical literature.

Data Synthesis: Only those interventions that can be reliably implemented by typical practitioners in a wide range of practice settings can produce lasting benefits for considerable numbers of patients.

Using social cognitive theory to explain consumers' behavioral intentions in response to direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising.

Background: Previous research describing consumers' communication behaviors in response to direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) suggests a social cognitive rationale to explain DTCA-related communication behavior.

Objective: Guided by social cognitive theory, the objective of this study was to explore outcome expectancy and self-efficacy beliefs as predictors of individuals' intentions to communicate with their physicians about an advertised drug.

Methods: One hundred and seven female college students completed a questionnaire, read an advertisement for an oral contraceptive drug, and completed a second questionnaire.

Predicting physician guideline compliance: an assessment of motivators and perceived barriers.

Background: Although clinical practice guidelines are widely accepted as "best practices," provider compliance remains low.

Objectives: To examine the relationship between providers' behavioral intentions and their compliance with practice guidelines; to assess the impact of perceived barriers that were most inhibiting to compliance; and to examine the ability of factors in the Physician Guideline Compliance Model to predict intention to comply and compliance with guidelines implemented at specific practice sites.

Methods: Survey research methods were used to assess effects of antecedents (attitudes, subjective norms, past behavior, and perceived behavioral control) on providers' intentions to comply and compliance with clinical practice guidelines.

Association between hospital size and quality improvement for pharmaceutical services.

Purpose: The relationship between hospital size and quality improvement (QI) for pharmaceutical services was studied.

Methods: A questionnaire on QI was sent to hospital pharmacy directors in Michigan and Florida in 2002. The questionnaire included items on QI lead-team composition, QI tools, QI training, and QI culture.

Time savings associated with dispensing unit-of-use packages.

Objectives: To determine how much time can be saved with the use of unit-of-use packaging in a community pharmacy, the distribution of work between the pharmacist and the pharmacy technician when unit-of-use packaging is used, and the number of errors that occur when either unit-of-use or bulk packaging is used in dispensing prescriptions.

Design: A simulation comparing count-and-pour dispensing with unit-of-use package dispensing.

Setting: An independent community pharmacy.