Background: Pharmacogenetic testing improves the efficacy and safety of antidepressant pharmacotherapy for moderate-severe major depressive disorder by identifying genetic variations that influence medication metabolism, and adjusting treatment regimens accordingly. This study aims to assess the cost-effectiveness of implementing a pharmacogenetic testing approach to guide the prescription of antidepressants.
Methods: From the public hospital perspective, we developed a two-stage decision tree diagram of a short-term 6-week follow up, and a lifetime Markov model with 3-month cycles.
Explor Res Clin Soc Pharm
December 2024
Background: The COVID-19 outbreak had significant global healthcare implications, including the use of medications. This is specifically evident in the surge in use of some medication and a decline in the use of others. As a result, some medications end up unused, which may have subsequent health, economic, and environmental impacts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Global evidence has linked unused medications and their inappropriate disposal to adverse health, economic, environmental, and ethical impacts. However, such evidence is scarce in Qatar. This study explored patients' knowledge and attitude toward unused medications and their practices toward medication supply and disposal (KAP) in Qatar.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPharmacogenetic (PGx)-informed medication prescription is a cutting-edge genomic application in contemporary medicine, offering the potential to overcome the conventional "trial-and-error" approach in drug prescription. The ability to use an individual's genetic profile to predict drug responses allows for personalized drug and dosage selection, thereby enhancing the safety and efficacy of treatments. However, despite significant scientific and clinical advancements in PGx, its integration into routine healthcare practices remains limited.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Preterm babies are prone to experiencing apnea of prematurity (AOP), mostly characterised by a pause in breathing lasting a minimum of 20 seconds. Recent literature supported higher maintenance doses of caffeine, indicating benefits. This study evaluated the cost-effectiveness of high maintenance dose (HD) versus low maintenance dose (LD) caffeine for AOP in neonates.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Poisoning is a major public health issue and a leading cause of admission to the emergency department (ED). There is a paucity of data describing the epidemiology and cost of acute poisoning. Therefore, this study investigated the epidemiology, patterns, and associated costs of acute poisoning in emergency department of the largest tertiary care healthcare centre in Qatar.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: COVID-19 is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. This study aimed to explore the early predictors of intensive care unit (ICU) admission among patients with COVID-19.
Methods: This was a case-control study of adult patients with confirmed COVID-19.
Objective: To estimate the economic impact of the developed antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) versus the preliminary ASP use, in the adults' general medicine settings in Qatar.
Methods: Patient records were retrospectively reviewed during two periods: preliminary ASP was defined as the 12 months following ASP implementation (i.e.
Aim: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of dapagliflozin added to standard of care (SoC) versus SoC in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) and without type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients from the Qatari healthcare perspective.
Materials And Methods: A lifetime Markov model was developed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of adding dapagliflozin to SoC based on the findings of Petrie et al. 2020, which were based on the DAPA-HF trial.
Background: Few theoretically-based, qualitative studies have explored determinants of antimicrobial prescribing behaviour in hospitals. Understanding these can promote successful development and implementation of behaviour change interventions (BCIs).
Objective: (s): To use the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) to explore determinants of clinicians' antimicrobial prescribing behaviour, identifying barriers (i.
Objective: This study aimed to assess the overall economic impact of clinical pharmacist interventions in the neonatal ICU (NICU) in Qatar.
Methods: A retrospective review of neonates' records was performed over a 3-month duration in the NICU of Qatar to determine the total economic benefit of clinical pharmacist interventions. The total benefit of interventions was calculated by considering the cost avoidance due to preventable adverse drug events (ADEs) and the cost savings associated with the revised resource use due to interventions.
Purpose: This study aimed to explore emergency pharmacy workforce perspectives and experiences in providing pharmaceutical care during mass gathering events (i.e., FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Vaccine hesitancy poses a global challenge and is acknowledged to be a complex, multifactorial phenomenon. Of particular concern is hesitancy among health professionals, as this may also impact their advocacy roles. There is a lack of theory-based investigations of pharmacy professionals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMedication-related problems (MRPs) are prevalent throughout healthcare systems, whereby pharmacy-based interventions are pivotal to reducing occurrence. In the Middle East, including Qatar, the professional roles of pharmacists have been expanding to improve patient safety. This study aimed to characterize and analyze pharmacist-led interventions among hospitalized patients in the leading general hospital in Qatar.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe aimed to investigate the characteristics and clinical outcomes of paracetamol poisoning and paracetamol overdose in Qatar. This retrospective cohort study included patients admitted to the emergency department (ED). We included patients who presented with excessive paracetamol ingestion, between December 2018 and September 2019.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Bronchial asthma affects about 20% of Qatar's population. The impact of asthma on COVID-19 outcomes is controversial. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of asthma on COVID-19 outcomes and the predictors of COVID-19-related morbidity and mortality in a cohort of asthma patients infected by COVID-19.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Well-designed and well-maintained drug formularies serve as a reliable resource to guide prescribing decisions; they are associated with improved medicine safety and increased efficiency, while also serving as a cost-effective tool to help manage and predict medicine expenditure. Multiple studies have investigated the inappropriate prescribing of non-formulary drugs (NFDs) with statistics indicating that up to 70% of NFD usage being inappropriate or not following the ascribed NFD policies.
Aim: To explore physicians' views and influences on their prescribing of non-formulary drugs.
Introduction: Drug-related problems (DRPs) affect the health outcomes of patients during hospitalization. We sought to analyze the clinical pharmacist-documented interventions among hospitalized patients in the cancer hospital in Qatar.
Methods: A retrospective analysis of electronically reported clinical pharmacist interventions of patients admitted to cancer units at Hamad Medical Corporation, Qatar was conducted.
Background: The likelihood of elderly patients with heart failure (HF) being readmitted to the hospital is higher if they have a higher medication regimen complexity index (MRCI) compared to those with a lower MRCI. The objective of this study was to investigate whether there is a correlation between the MRCI score and the frequency of hospital readmissions (30-day, 90-day, and 1-year) among elderly patients with HF.
Methods: In this single-center retrospective cohort study, MRCI scores were calculated using a well-established tool.
Background: With an increasingly strained health system budgets, healthcare services need to continually demonstrate evidence of economic benefits. This study sought to evaluate the economic impact of interventions initiated by clinical pharmacists in an adult general tertiary hospital.
Methods: A retrospective review of clinical pharmacist interventions was carried out throughout follow-up durations in March 2018, July/August 2018, and January 2019 in Hamad General Hospital (HGH) at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) in Qatar.
We sought to investigate the economic impact of preventing adverse events in a cardiology setting in Qatar as an effect of the clinical pharmacist as an intervention. This is a retrospective study of interventions by clinical pharmacists within an adult cardiology setting in a public healthcare setting (i.e Hamad Medical Corporation).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: The aim of this study is to assess the level of preparedness of pharmacists working in the emergency department at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) for any emergency disasters that may take place during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ by evaluating their awareness (A), attitude (A), and readiness (R).
Methods: A cross-sectional quantitative observational study was conducted through a web-based survey. The survey was distributed among emergency pharmacists working in general hospitals under HMC.
Background: The economic benefit of the clinical pharmacist's role in ensuring the optimum use of medicines is potentially considerable, particularly when it comes to cancer management. We sought to evaluate the overall economic impact of clinical pharmacist interventions in the main cancer setting in Qatar.
Methods: The total economic benefit of the clinical pharmacy interventions were analyzed from the public hospital perspective.
Background: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) gained global attention because of its high transmissibility and the devastating impact on both clinical and economic outcomes. Pharmacists are among the front-line healthcare workers who contributed widely to COVID-19 pandemic control. We aim to evaluate knowledge and attitude of hospital pharmacists in Qatar about COVID-19.
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