Managing a Curriculum Innovation Process.

Curriculum reform is a long-term project that needs to be managed through detailed strategy. To create this strategy, the management team has to analyse the current situation by doing a thorough environmental scan and by identifying the gap between the current state and the desired program. To be implemented, the vision of the new program needs to rely on the generation of several potential avenues to come up with optimal solutions, likely involving some form of innovation.

Assessing the knowledge, perception and practices of physicians and pharmacists towards medication reconciliation in Kuwait governmental hospitals: a cross-sectional study.

Objectives: To assess the knowledge, perception and practices towards medication reconciliation (MedRec) and its related institutional policies among physicians and pharmacists in governmental hospitals in Kuwait and identifying potential obstacles that prevent the successful implementation of MedRec.

Design: A descriptive, cross-sectional study.

Setting: Six governmental hospitals across Kuwait in January-May 2017.

Stakeholder driven development of a multi-criteria decision analysis tool for purchasing off-patent pharmaceuticals in Kuwait.

Background: In Kuwait, the government is planning to improve the specifications for purchase of medicine and to improve the tendering system intending to slow the growth of the expenditure for medicine and to improve the sustainability of the healthcare system. Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) is a method which can help to assess multiple and sometimes conflicting criteria in the evaluation of the available alternatives. The objective of this initiative was to develop collaboratively a MCDA tool which is locally relevant, and which could be used to improve the use of performance indicators in the purchasing of off-patent pharmaceuticals.

Medication adherence in chronic illness: do beliefs about medications play a role?

Background: Several medicines are prescribed for chronic disease management; however, adherence to long-term therapy remains poor. Culture influences beliefs about medications and, ultimately, adherence to treatment. There is a paucity of data with regard to beliefs about medications in the Middle East region, and it remains to be determined how these beliefs would impact treatment adherence.

Clinical pharmacy in Kuwait: Services provided, perceptions and barriers.

Introduction: Pharmacy practice has considerably evolved from a dispensing role to a patient-centered profession. Kuwait has minimal clinical pharmacy services established in its healthcare settings.

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to document existing clinical pharmacy services in public hospitals, identify barriers to their implementation and assess perceptions regarding pharmacists providing clinical services.

Reporting of Adverse Drug Reactions in Primary Care Settings in Kuwait: A Comparative Study of Physicians and Pharmacists.

Objective: To investigate and compare knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding pharmacovigilance (PV) and the reporting of adverse drug reactions (ADR) among physicians and pharmacists in primary care settings.

Subjects And Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted, in which a validated self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 386 physicians and 197 pharmacists in 38 primary care clinics in Kuwait. Categorical variables were described using numbers and percentages.

Public Perceptions, Expectations, and Views of Community Pharmacy Practice in Kuwait.

Objectives: This study was designed to determine public patterns for use of community pharmacies, perceptions of pharmacists, confidence and trust in pharmacists, and expectations about the pharmacist's roles, and to explore the public views and satisfaction with the current pharmacy services.

Subjects And Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional survey was performed using a pretested self-administered questionnaire on a sample of 481 individuals selected using a 2-stage stratified cluster sampling design. Descriptive and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used for data analysis.

Pregabalin for peripheral neuropathic pain: a multicenter, enriched enrollment randomized withdrawal placebo-controlled trial.

Objectives: To date, published neuropathic pain randomized controlled trials of pregabalin have involved primarily diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) and postherpetic neuralgia (PHN). This multicenter trial evaluated pregabalin in a broader range of neuropathic pain etiologies.

Methods: In this enriched enrollment randomized withdrawal trial, 256 patients received single blind, flexible dose pregabalin for 4 weeks; stable concomitant analgesics were allowed.

Neointimal-specific induction of apoptosis by losartan results in regression of vascular lesion in rat aorta.

We previously reported that initiating treatment with the angiotensin II receptor antagonist losartan, prior to and immediately after balloon injury, attenuates neointimal hyperplasia via induction of smooth muscle cell (SMC) apoptosis in the aorta of spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). The present study examines whether losartan can induce regression of an established neointima. Balloon angioplasty was performed in the aorta of 1 1 week-old SHR.

Metabolic and additional vascular effects of thiazolidinediones.

Several cardiovascular risk factors (dyslipidaemia, hypertension, glucose intolerance, hypercoagulability, obesity, hyperinsulinaemia and low-grade inflammation) cluster in the insulin resistance syndrome. Treatment of these individual risk factors reduces cardiovascular complications. However, targeting the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms of the insulin resistance syndrome is a more rational treatment strategy to further improve cardiovascular outcome.