Comparison of Electronic Prescription Systems in the European Union: Benchmarking Development, Use, and Future Trends.

While Electronic Prescription Systems (EPS) adoption varies across EU Member States, there's a lack of comprehensive comparative analysis. Existing studies focus on single EPSs, employ diverse methodologies, and lack up-to-date data. This study fills this gap by providing a comprehensive overview of EPS development, functionalities, and usage statistics in each EU Member State.

Reducing the Travel Burden for Patients to Access Specialized Medicines in Paraná, Brazil.

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the potential reduction in distance and travel time with a hypothetical municipal distribution of specialized component medicines in the state of Paraná.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. Distances and travel times from all the 1025 residential locations in the state of Paraná to dispensing pharmacies were calculated in 2 different models: centralized model with drugs dispensed in the 22 state-owned pharmacies and decentralized model with drugs dispensed in the 399 municipal pharmacies.

Evaluation of Medical Subject Headings assignment in simulated patient articles.

Objectives: To evaluate human-based Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) allocation in articles about 'patient simulation'-a technique that mimics real-life patient scenarios with controlled patient responses.

Methods: A validation set of articles indexed before the Medical Text Indexer-Auto implementation (in 2019) was created with 150 combinations potentially referring to 'patient simulation'. Articles were classified into four categories of simulation studies.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on antidepressant consumption in the Central region of Portugal: interrupted time series.

Purpose: To evaluate the impact of the pandemic on the consumption of antidepressive agents in Central Portugal.

Methods: To estimate the causal effect of the pandemic an interrupted time series analysis was conducted. Data of antidepressant drugs monthly dispensed in community pharmacies between Jan-2010 and Dec-2021 were provided by the regional Health Administration.

Influence of automated indexing in Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) selection for pharmacy practice journals.

Background: The Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) thesaurus is the controlled vocabulary used to index articles in MEDLINE. MeSH were mainly manually selected until June 2022 when an automated algorithm, the Medical Text Indexer (MTI) automated was fully implemented. A selection of automated indexed articles is then reviewed (curated) by human indexers to ensure the quality of the process.

Impact of COVID-19 on tuberculosis notifications.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the control of diseases by overwhelming healthcare systems, and tuberculosis (TB) notifications may have been affected. This study aimed to analyze the impact of COVID-19 on TB notifications in the Sao Paulo State. This is a retrospective study examining TB notifications extracted from the TBweb database (Jan 2015 to Dec 2022).

Clinical pharmacy key performance indicators for hospital inpatient setting: a systematic review.

Background: Key performance indicators (KPIs) are quantifiable measures used to monitor the quality of health services. Implementation guidelines for clinical pharmacy services (CPS) do not specify KPIs.

Aim: To assess the quality of the studies that have developed KPIs for CPS in inpatient hospital settings.

Data quality review of the Brazilian nosocomial infections surveillance system.

Background: Surveillance of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) is an essential component of hospital infection prevention and control systems. We aimed to assess the quality of the data compiled by the Brazilian HAI Surveillance System from pediatric (PICUs) and neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), between 2012 and 2021.

Methods: Data Quality Review, including adherence, completeness, internal consistency, consistency over time, and consistency of population trend, were computed at both national and state levels based on quality metrics from World Health Organization Toolkit.

Mapping the concept of health care integration: A lexicographic analysis of scientific literature.

Background: Systems fragmentation is a major challenge for an efficient organization, integration being a potential solution also proposed in health care field, including pharmacy as a player. However, the use of different terms and definitions in the literature hinders the comparison of different integration initiatives.

Objective: To identify and map the terms used in scientific literature regarding integration in health care and to characterize each emerging topic.

Effects of inpatient creatinine testing frequency on acute kidney injury identification and staging: a historical cohort study.

Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a multifactorial condition often induced by drugs commonly used in hospitals. Identifying and staging AKI necessitates frequent monitoring of renal function.

Aim: To assess the impact of real-world hospital practices regarding serum creatinine (SCr) testing on the identification and staging of AKI, and its implications for adjusting drug doses.

Impact of harm minimization interventions on reducing blood-borne infection transmission and some injecting behaviors among people who inject drugs: an overview and evidence gap mapping.

Background: This study aimed to synthetize the evidence on the effectiveness of harm minimization interventions on reducing blood-borne infection transmission and injecting behaviors among people who inject drugs (PWID) through a comprehensive overview of systematic reviews and evidence gap mapping.

Methods: A systematic review was conducted with searches in PubMed and Scopus to identify systematic reviews assessing the impact of interventions aimed at reducing the harms associated with injectable drug use. The overall characteristics of the studies were extracted and their methodological quality was assessed using AMSTAR-2.

[Variability in Drug Procurement within Group 1B of the Pharmaceutical Specialized Scheme in Brazil].

In the Brazilian Health System (SUS), drugs covered by the Specialized Pharmaceutical Scheme (CEAF) receive federal funding and can be procured either centrally (Group 1A) or by individual states (Federal Units - UF) (Group 1B). Unlike other countries where national procurement prices are negotiated centrally by the government, public procurement in Brazil follows a public auction procedure, potentially resulting in varying purchase prices. To facilitate price comparisons, it is a legal requirement to register public acquisitions in the Health Prices Registry (BPS).

Discrepancies among equations to estimate the glomerular filtration rate for drug dosing decision making in aged patients: a cross sectional study.

Background: Patients often require adjustments to drug doses due to impaired renal function. Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) estimation using various equations can result in discrepancies, potentially leading to different dose adjustment recommendations.

Aim: To determine the clinical significance of discrepancies observed between different equations used to estimate GFR for drug dose adjustments in a real-world group of patients over 65 years in primary care.

Heterogeneity in protocols and outcomes to study the effect of renin-angiotensin system blockers in inflammatory bowel disease: A systematic review.

Background: The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) has been associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), supporting translational relevance of RAS blockers. Comparability of study design/outcomes is fundamental for data analysis/discussion.

Objectives: We aimed at evaluating the heterogeneity among protocols and outcomes to study the effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers in IBD.

[Improving the Quality of Publications in and Advancing the Paradigms of Clinical and Social Pharmacy Practice Research: The Granada Statements].

Pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences embrace a series of different disciplines. Pharmacy practice has been defined as "the scientific discipline that studies the different aspects of the practice of pharmacy and its impact on health care systems, medicine use, and patient care". Thus, pharmacy practice studies embrace both clinical pharmacy and social pharmacy elements.

Development and validation of a Medication Adherence Universal Questionnaire: the MAUQ.

Background: Different questionnaires assess self-reported medication adherence and others quantify aspects of patients attitudes towards medication, but not together in a single instrument. Gathering these two aspects in a single instrument could reduce patients survey burden.

Aim: The aim of this study was to develop the Medication Adherence Universal Questionnaire (MAUQ) using the Maastricht Utrecht Adherence in Hypertension short version (MUAH-16) factorial structure as the hypothesized model.

Chemical Constituents, Anticancer and Anti-Proliferative Potential of Species: A Systematic Review.

species represent a source of bioactive compounds that have been widely used in folk medicine. This study aimed to synthesize the anticancer and anti-proliferative potential of species through a systematic review. Searches were performed in the electronic databases PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and Scielo and via a manual search.