Background: Clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) already support community pharmacists in conducting medication reviews (MRs) by identifying important information on interactions and suggesting clinical solutions. However, their impact in terms of quality and time savings is widely unexplored. The aim of our study was to investigate whether MRs are performed faster and better with or without using a CDSS.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo enhance the digital competencies of pharmacy students, the Institute of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacotherapy at Heinrich-Heine University Duesseldorf developed and evaluated a theoretical module on digital health and data analysis. This innovative module integrated a continuous glucose-monitoring (CGM) wearable device into teaching, providing students with in-depth practical experience and a 2.5 h seminar on digital health and CGM systems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecently, there has been a remarkable move towards interprofessional collaboration in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the care of comorbidities. In Germany, there has been a gradual increase in interprofessional learning in medical and pharmacy education, aiming to enhance patient care. To adapt the pharmacy curriculum for collaborative practice between pharmacy and medical students, we developed an immersive interprofessional collaboration course for pharmacy students using adult and pediatric high-fidelity simulators (HFS) to assess and train medication consultation skills.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn order to increase vaccination rates, the Government of Germany introduced vaccination against influenza and COVID-19 into the regular care administered by pharmacists. However, vaccination training is yet not integrated into the German pharmacy curriculum. Therefore, the Institute for Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacotherapy in Duesseldorf had developed an innovative vaccination course using high-fidelity simulation for students.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDigital Medication Review Tools (DMRTs) are increasingly important in pharmacy practice. To ensure that young pharmacists are sufficiently competent to perform medication reviews after graduation, the introduction of DMRTs teaching in academic education is necessary. The aim of our study was to demonstrate the effect of DMRTs use on pharmacy students' performance when conducting a medication review (MR) in a randomized controlled pre-post design.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRecently, pharmacists in Germany were allowed to administer influenza and COVID-19 vaccines for people aged 12 years and older in order to increase vaccination coverage rates. In order to adapt the pharmacy curriculum for clinical practice, an innovative, vaccination training course using a high-fidelity simulator (HFS) was developed, implementing clinical scenarios to manage adverse events. In a randomized controlled trial using a pre and post design with pharmacy undergraduates, the intervention group interacted with an HFS, while the control group was trained with low-fidelity injection pads.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPersonal digital health apps for managing diabetes should include functions that enable the provision of pharmaceutical care services and allow within-app communication with pharmacists and other healthcare providers, thereby improving patient outcomes. The primary aim of this study was to assess the functions of diabetes apps that were relevant to providing pharmaceutical care services (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAngiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI), such as enalapril, are a cornerstone of treatment for pediatric heart failure which is still used off-label. Using a novel age-appropriate formulation of enalapril orodispersible minitablets (ODMTs), phase II/III open-label, multicenter pharmacokinetic (PK) bridging studies were performed in pediatric patients with heart failure due to dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) and congenital heart disease (CHD) in five participating European countries. Children were treated for 8 weeks with ODMTs according to an age-appropriate dosing schedule.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFor reliable blood pressure measurement, various potential sources of inaccuracies need to be considered to avoid incorrect decision-making. Pharmacy students should be sensitized and taught the skill accordingly. One strategy to teach students' blood pressure measurement skills might be through a blended learning approach in a flipped classroom-like setting.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: High blood pressure is an important worldwide health issue. Pharmacists can perform multifaceted tasks in hypertension management such as measuring blood pressure. In a time where the use of educational videos in health professions education has increased, an educational video might be an option for teaching blood pressure measurement skills to pharmacy students.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Pharmacists play an important role in ensuring the safe, effective, and rational use of drugs in self-medication. Given the potential risks of self-medication, adequate training on self-medication counseling should be provided to pharmacy students during their academic education. Objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) could be used to train pharmacy students in these skills.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnalapril has an established safety and efficacy in adults and is used in hypertension, heart failure, and renal failure. In pediatric patients, enalapril is labeled for children with hypertension and used off label in children with heart failure. The systematic literature search aims to assess the current knowledge about enalapril and its active metabolite enalaprilat pharmacokinetics in children as a basis for dose delineation for pediatric patients with heart failure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPharmacists' tasks are multifaceted and include, for example, vital counseling and communication skills. Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) could be used to train pharmacy students in these skills. Our study sought to determine the efficacy of our OSCE training approach for training pharmacy students' counseling and communication skills on diabetes mellitus compared to a control group.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA modern approach to clinical skill education is the use of educational videos, yet there is a shortage of literature investigating the effect of self-instruction videos (SIVs) in pharmacy students. Therefore, our objective was to investigate whether an SIV is non-inferior compared to face-to-face instruction (FTFI) in acquiring blood pressure measurement skills. The participants in this randomized controlled study were pharmacy students.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Pharmacists have the responsibility to conduct medication therapy management and appropriately counsel patients and physicians on medicines. Blended learning and objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) may have the potential to address these skills. This study aimed to assess whether a blended learning program consisting of e-learning and OSCEs could enhance pharmacy students' abilities to conduct pharmaceutical consultations with type 2 diabetes mellitus patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor enalapril is commonly used to treat chronic heart failure in children. Because some children are unable to swallow capsules or tablets, a new, age-appropriate, orodispersible minitablet (ODMT) containing 1 mg of enalapril was developed within the EU-funded LENA (Labeling of Enalapril from Neonates up to Adolescents) consortium. In order to support the clinical evaluation of this new formulation in children, a relative bioavailability study was performed in healthy adults, comparing the bioavailability of enalapril in the ODMT with that of a reference product (RP) Renitec, a registered standard enalapril tablet formulation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Variability in pre-analytical procedures such as blood sampling, sample preparation and transport can substantially influence bioanalytical results and subsequently impair reliability of data gathered during clinical trials. Especially in vulnerable populations, all efforts should be made to facilitate high-quality data extraction excluding unnecessary or repeated intervention.
Methods: The EU-funded LENA project (Labeling of Enalapril from Neonates up to Adolescents) included a feasibility study in its preparatory procedures prior to first-in-child studies.
Background Pharmacists who engage in Pharmaceutical Care need skills to optimise responsible medication use and increase medication adherence. Objectives We developed and evaluated a blended-learning programme for German community pharmacists that focused on conducting consultations in chronic diseases. Setting Community pharmacists in Germany.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Heart failure is well investigated in adults, but data in children is lacking. To overcome this shortage of reliable data, appropriate bioanalytical assays are required.
Objectives: Development and validation of a bioanalytical assay for the determination of aldosterone concentrations in small sample volumes applicable to clinical studies under Good Clinical Laboratory Practice.
Objective: To evaluate randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that included interventions provided by community pharmacists for patients with type 1 and 2 diabetes, the analysis of each component of the intervention(s), and the description of the training that the pharmacists received.
Data Sources: The literature research was conducted in PubMed and in the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (January 2000 to April 2016) for RCTs with interventions provided by community pharmacists for patients with diabetes. Corresponding authors were contacted about missing data and intervention and training design.
Introduction: The pharmacotherapy of pediatric patients suffering from heart failure is extrapolated from adults due to missing data in children.
Objectives: Development and validation of a low-volume immunoassay for the reliable determination of renin.
Experimental: The immunoassay was validated according to international guidelines.
In USA and Europe, medicines agencies force the development of child-appropriate medications and intend to increase the availability of information on the pediatric use. This asks for bioanalytical methods which are able to deal with small sample volumes as the trial-related blood lost is very restricted in children. Broadly used HPLC-MS/MS, being able to cope with small volumes, is susceptible to matrix effects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe benefit-risk ratio of combined blocking by the direct renin inhibitor aliskiren and an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (e.g. enalapril) on the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system is discussed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough serum and plasma are the biological fluids of choice for pharmacokinetic determination of drugs in adults, it is desirable to elucidate noninvasive methods which can be used for investigations in vulnerable groups such as children. If the drug properties grant sufficient penetration of the drug from blood into saliva, the latter is a useful matrix for noninvasive investigations. Concerning the known physicochemical properties, the direct renin inhibitor aliskiren is one of the substances of which saliva concentrations could substitute blood concentrations for pharmacokinetic investigations in children.
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