Background: Buprenorphine may provide superior analgesia to full opioid agonist therapy and reverse the effects of opioid-induced hyperalgesia, while having a favorable safety profile and fewer adverse effects, in chronic non-cancer pain treatment. Low-dose initiation of buprenorphine is a useful strategy for patients on long-term opioid therapy because it avoids the need for moderate opioid withdrawal required for traditional buprenorphine initiations. However, there are few published reports of low-dose initiation regimens in the setting of chronic pain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The current standards for shock advisory algorithms in AEDs require performance testing on artifact-free ECGs. However, AED analysis in the real world is more challenging due to potential artifacts from various sources (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCan Pharm J (Ott)
July 2023
Background: Chronic noncancer pain (CNCP) is a common condition that affects individuals at a biopsychosocial level and can significantly impair function and quality of life. Referral to an interprofessional CNCP program is recommended for most patients; however, these clinics are limited in number and capacity. Expanding access by testing new service delivery models would be of value.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Pharmacists can have an essential role in providing care for patients with mental illness. There are gaps in the understanding of the current extent of pharmacists' involvement in caring for patients with mental illness and their readiness to effectively provide this care.
Aim: To describe the current practices, attitudes, and beliefs of pharmacists in providing care to individuals with mental illness, and to assess factors that may impact these practices.
Introduction: Respiratory mechanics, such as tidal volume (V) and inspiratory pressures, may affect outcome in hospitalized patients with respiratory failure. Little is known about respiratory mechanics in the prehospital setting.
Methods: In this prospective, pilot investigation of patients receiving prehospital advanced airway placement, paramedics applied a device to measure respiratory mechanics.
Background: Chronic insomnia is a common medical condition that negatively impacts quality of life and daytime function. Access to the first-line treatment for insomnia, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT-i), is limited. Pharmacists are well positioned to provide this service, but evidence regarding pharmacist delivered CBT-i is sparse.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCanada's universal public health care system provides physician, diagnostic, and hospital services at no cost to all Canadians, accounting for approximately 70% of the 264 billion CAD spent in health expenditure yearly. Pharmacy-related services, including prescription drugs, however, are not universally publicly insured. Although this system underpins the Canadian identity, primary health care reform has long been desired by Canadians wanting better access to high quality, effective, patient-centred, and safe primary care services.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Survival following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) decreases as the interval from collapse to CPR and defibrillation increases. Innovative approaches are needed to reduce response intervals, especially for private locations.
Methods: We undertook the Verified Responder Program in 5 United States communities during 2018, whereby off-duty EMS professionals volunteered and were equipped with automated external defibrillators (AEDs).
Objective: To determine the impact of the SIMPL-SYNC refill synchronization (SSRS) service compared with that of usual care (UC) on medication adherence when applied as an opt-out strategy among patients receiving chronic medications.
Design: This was a pragmatic randomized controlled trial.
Setting And Participants: The study was conducted in 2 community pharmacies located in Saskatchewan, Canada.
Experiential education is a critical component of any pharmacy undergraduate curriculum. Establishing new, high-quality practice sites can be challenging. We designed a new advanced pharmacy practice experiential rotation suitable for implementation in most community pharmacy settings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The Saskatchewan Medication Assessment Program (SMAP) is a publicly funded community pharmacy-based medication assessment service with limited previous evaluation. The purpose of this study was to explore community pharmacists' experiences with the SMAP.
Methods: Online, self-administered questionnaire that consisted of a combination of 53 Likert scale and free-text questions.
Appl Physiol Nutr Metab
April 2019
Individuals who take medications may benefit from using vitamin and/or mineral supplements (VMS) yet excess supplementation can lead to overuse (daily intake exceeding the tolerable upper intake level (UL)). This study assessed VMS use of medically complex, community-living, older adults. A chart review of 229 patients ≥50 years with new medication assessments between 2014 and 2017 indicated that 76.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurr Pharm Teach Learn
December 2018
Background And Purpose: Pharmacy schools would benefit from new models of experiential education. The University of Saskatchewan (Canada) recently opened a patient care clinic called the Medication Assessment Centre (MAC) as new experiential education model. The purpose of this paper is to describe the structure and function of the MAC and to report program evaluation data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Most cardiac arrests occur in the private setting where response is often delayed and outcomes are poor. We surveyed public safety personnel to determine if they would volunteer to respond into private locations and/or be equipped with a personal automated external defibrillator (AED) as part of a vetted responder program that would use smart geospatial technology.
Methods: We conducted an anonymized survey among personnel from fire-based emergency medical services (EMS) and search and rescue organizations from Washington State.
Objective: To determine if the clinical services provided at a patient care clinic run by pharmacy faculty and students are valuable to family physicians.
Design: Paper-based postal survey.
Setting: The Medication Assessment Centre located within the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.