Am J Health Syst Pharm
November 2022
Purpose: To track and analyze the growth of 12 Board of Pharmacy Specialties (BPS) specialties from 2008 to 2020 and, subject to criteria, to project specialty numbers through 2025. The analysis considered residency data and Bureau of Labor Statistics projections.
Methods: BPS data were used to determine numeric growth, growth rates, and trends for 12 BPS specialties from 2008 to 2020.
Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify trends in oncology care that allow one to forecast workforce supply and demand, the training and skills needed by the oncology pharmacist for the likely future of oncology care.
Methods: Interviews were conducted with experienced oncology pharmacists in leadership roles at 20 organizations balanced by geographic region and type of practice site (academic or community/ambulatory). Results were analyzed using descriptive statistics and theme identification.
Based on the projected need for a larger oncology care workforce, we estimated the patient care visits and care activities that Board Certified oncology pharmacists (BCOPs) could contribute to oncology care from 2020-2025. Using projected counts for BCOPs through 2025, we estimated that 2.9-4.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Using the Delphi process, a panel of experienced preceptors achieved consensus on best practices to increase preceptor efficiency and effectiveness.
Methods: The Delphi panelists completed 3 survey rounds and a face-to-face meeting. Survey questions covered several topics, including preparation of students for rotations, preceptor efficiency and effectiveness, potential resident contributions to precepting, methods of developing critical-thinking skills and providing assessment and feedback, precepting time metrics, and barriers to preceptor effectiveness.
Background: To address the rising concern about oncology drug costs, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) recently developed unique tools to help providers and patients make informed decisions about the value of an anticancer regimen. The ASCO Value Framework (AVF) allows users to generate a net health benefit (NHB) score along with drug acquisition costs for oncology regimens that have been compared in a prospective randomized clinical trial. In contrast, the NCCN Evidence Blocks (NEB) derives ratings from an expert panel assessment in the categories of efficacy, safety, quality and consistency of evidence, and affordability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: With an aging US population, the number of patients who need cancer treatment will increase significantly by 2020. On the basis of a predicted shortage of oncology physicians, nonphysician health care practitioners will need to fill the shortfall in oncology patient visits, and nurse practitioners and physician assistants have already been identified for this purpose. This study proposes that appropriately trained oncology pharmacists can also contribute.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Health Syst Pharm
January 2009
Purpose: Guidelines have been constructed to optimize the management of patients at risk of developing postoperative nausea and vomiting or postdischarge nausea and vomiting (PONV/PDNV), including the 2002 American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) recommendations, the 2006 guidelines assembled by an American Society of PeriAnesthesia Nurses task force (ASPAN), and another set published in 2007 with the support of the Society for Ambulatory Anesthesia (SAMBA). The recommendations set forth are reviewed.
Summary: Patient risk factors have been identified that are associated with higher incidences of PONV.
J Oncol Pharm Pract
December 2005
Purpose: The objectives of this study were (1) to describe the usage of topical oral solutions in patients experiencing chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis (CIOM); and (2) to survey the care of oral mucositis provided to patients by clinical oncology pharmacists in institutional settings.
Methods: Surveys were distributed to institutional pharmacists in the US, who were asked to provide the components of their 'magic mouthwash'. Other questions included whether an institutional mucositis management guideline is available and what is the involvement of clinical pharmacy in mucositis care.
Am J Health Syst Pharm
November 2004
Purpose: The pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, preclinical and clinical experience to date, and clinical concerns in monitoring patients receiving bevacizumab, recombinant humanized monoclonal antibody to vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), are described.
Summary: Preclinical research revealed that bevacizumab specifically inhibits VEGF, has activity in multiple cancer cell lines, and is synergistic with several cancer chemotherapeutic agents. In humans, bevacizumab has a long half-life, allowing intravenous administration once every two to three weeks.
Most lymphomas that involve the central nervous system are B-cell neoplasms that express the cell surface molecule CD20. After intravenous administration, rituximab can be reproducibly measured in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in patients with primary central nervous system lymphoma; however, the CSF levels of rituximab are approximately 0.1% of serum levels associated with therapeutic activity in patients with systemic non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To evaluate the effect of telephone follow-up on the physical well-being dimension of health-related quality of life in patients with cancer.
Design: Randomized, controlled trial.
Setting: Public teaching hospital.
Am J Health Syst Pharm
December 1999
The evolution of and rationale for fluorouracil-based strategies in the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer are discussed, and the role of the new oral fluoropyrimidines is described. Although fluorouracil is one of the most widely used drugs in the United States for colorectal, head and neck, bladder, and breast cancer, response rates and survival times have been disappointing. Dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD), a rate-limiting enzyme in the catabolism of fluorouracil, indirectly determines the drug's anticancer efficacy by regulating the availability of fluorouracil for anabolism.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMany oncology patients receive chemotherapy drugs that have the potential to induce oral mucositis. If mucositis is not prevented, patients will have to manage the problems associated with mucositis: pain, local infection, and decreased ability to take fluids or food. At the time of this writing, clinical approaches for mucositis management are variable and generally ineffective.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Health Syst Pharm
April 1997
Docetaxel is a taxane that disrupts the equilibrium in the polymerization and depolymerization of microtubules, thus inhibiting cell growth. This agent is indicated for the treatment of anthracycline-resistant metastatic breast cancer. The dose-limiting adverse effect is neutropenia, but febrile neutropenia is uncommon.
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