Alienation and/or anomie in pharmacists: a protocol for a narrative systematic review.

Introduction: Episodes of alienation and/or anomie in pharmacists have been reported in historical accounts since the 19th century. Alienation and anomie are distinct types of psychological or social ills where people are problematically separated from, or their skills and values are misaligned with, others and their environment. Alienation and/or anomie can be important precursors of many negative work experiences, including job dissatisfaction, burnout and/or intention to leave.

How specific is the specificity rule in duty to warn or protect jurisprudence following the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's Maas decision?

Of the various rules establishing a mental health clinician's legal duty to take precautions to protect their patient from harming others, the most common is the specificity rule that limits the protective duty to warn reasonably identifiable victims. The specificity rule is important wherein the main or only specified protective measure is warning the victim. In the last quarter century, Pennsylvania adopted the specificity rule from its Supreme Court Emerich decision.

Seroprevalence of Hepatitis C in Ethiopia: First National Study Based on the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is hypothesised to be a public health problem in Ethiopia, and systematic review evidence suggested 1%-3% seroprevalence. We aimed to estimate the seroprevalence of HCV overall and across regions of Ethiopia. We estimated HCV seroprevalence using the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS-2016).

Cost-Effectiveness of Treating Hepatitis C in Clients on Opioid Agonist Therapy in Community Pharmacies Compared to Primary Healthcare in Australia.

Meeting the World Health Organisation 2030 target of treating 80% of people with hepatitis C virus (HCV) in Australia requires accessible testing and treatment services for at-risk populations. Previous clinical trials, including those in Australia, have demonstrated the efficacy of outreach programmes to community pharmacies offering opioid agonist therapy (OAT). This analysis evaluates the potential cost-effectiveness of introducing an outreach programme in community pharmacies.

An analysis of prescribing data in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder for adolescents and adults in Scotland.

Background: Medication, combined with environmental and psychosocial support, can mitigate adverse outcomes in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). There is a need for research into regional and national prescription volumes and patterns, especially among adults.

Aims: This study analysed prescribing patterns for medications commonly used to treat ADHD in adolescents and adults.

A Pharmacist Clinician Model as part of a collaborative clinical workforce: A philosophical critique.

The term 'clinician' is not reserved for any healthcare professional group. However, there is a general acceptance that a clinician would have the knowledge, skills and behaviours to enable them to clinically assess and manage a patient autonomously. The expectation, in a modern collaborative healthcare system, is that this work would be completed as a part of a planned and integrated multi-disciplinary care delivery structure, where any given clinician delivers a devolved element of that patient's care.

Naive pluripotent stem cell-based models capture FGF-dependent human hypoblast lineage specification.

The hypoblast is an essential extraembryonic tissue set aside within the inner cell mass in the blastocyst. Research with human embryos is challenging. Thus, stem cell models that reproduce hypoblast differentiation provide valuable alternatives.

Branching topology of the human embryo transcriptome revealed by Entropy Sort Feature Weighting.

Analysis of single cell transcriptomics (scRNA-seq) data is typically performed after subsetting to highly variable genes (HVGs). Here, we show that Entropy Sorting provides an alternative mathematical framework for feature selection. On synthetic datasets, continuous Entropy Sort Feature Weighting (cESFW) outperforms HVG selection in distinguishing cell-state-specific genes.

REPAIRS Delphi: A UK and Ireland Consensus Statement on the Management of Infected Arterial Pseudoaneurysms Secondary to Groin Injecting Drug Use.

Objective: Consensus guidelines on the optimal management of infected arterial pseudoaneurysms secondary to groin injecting drug use are lacking. This pathology is a problem in the UK and globally, yet operative management options remain contentious. This study was designed to establish consensus to promote better management of these patients, drawing on the expert experience of those in a location with a high prevalence of illicit drug use.

Implementation of point-of-care HbA1C instruments into community pharmacies: Initial development of a pathway for robust community testing.

Background: Point-of-care (POC) analysers in community settings can provide opportunistic and regular HbA1c monitoring. Community pharmacies in NHS Scotland are utilised by populations at greatest risk of type two diabetes (T2D). This study describes initial development of an HbA1c pathway using a POC analyser in community pharmacies.

Point-of-Care testing of HbAc levels in community settings for people with established diabetes or people at risk of developing diabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) measurement using Point of Care (POC) testing may be of huge utility, providing convenient testing for early diagnosis and regular monitoring of hard-to-reach patient groups. This systematic review aimed to identify evidence for the successful deployment of these devices to improve patient outcomes in diabetes.

Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis was undertaken in February 2023, to identify all relevant articles: (CINAHL, Cochrane, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science).

A multicomponent holistic care pathway for people who use drugs in Tayside, Scotland.

Background: People Who Use Drugs (PWUD) are at high risk of non-fatal overdose and other drug-related harms. The United Kingdom drugs policy landscape makes it challenging to support those at risk. Tayside, in East Scotland, has a sizeable population at risk of drug-related harms.

Management of the infected arterial pseudoaneurysm secondary to groin injecting drug use and outcomes: a systematic review protocol.

Introduction: People who inject drugs are at risk of a range of injecting-related infections and injuries, which can threaten life and limb. In parallel to escalating rates of drug-related deaths seen in Scotland and the UK, there has also been an increase in hospital admissions for skin and soft tissue infections related to injecting drug use. One such injecting complication is the infected arterial pseudoaneurysm, which risks rupture and life-threatening haemorrhage.

Point-of-care testing of HbA1c levels in community settings for people with established diabetes or people at risk of developing type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis protocol.

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus has increased in prevalence worldwide and is causing an increasing burden on health services. The best patient outcomes occur with early diagnosis to prevent health complications. Glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) is used to assess glycaemic control over 3-6 months and inform clinical management.

Evidence implicating sequential commitment of the founder lineages in the human blastocyst by order of hypoblast gene activation.

Successful human pregnancy depends upon rapid establishment of three founder lineages: the trophectoderm, epiblast and hypoblast, which together form the blastocyst. Each plays an essential role in preparing the embryo for implantation and subsequent development. Several models have been proposed to define the lineage segregation.

Laying the foundations for hepatitis C elimination: evaluating the development and contribution of community care pathways to diagnostic efforts.

Background: Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) is a public health threat which contributes substantially to the global burden of liver disease. There is much debate about effective approaches to scaling up diagnosis of HCV among risk groups. Tayside, a region in the East of Scotland, developed low-threshold community pathways for HCV to lay the foundations of an elimination strategy.

Entropy sorting of single-cell RNA sequencing data reveals the inner cell mass in the human pre-implantation embryo.

A major challenge in single-cell gene expression analysis is to discern meaningful cellular heterogeneity from technical or biological noise. To address this challenge, we present entropy sorting (ES), a mathematical framework that distinguishes genes indicative of cell identity. ES achieves this in an unsupervised manner by quantifying if observed correlations between features are more likely to have occurred due to random chance versus a dependent relationship, without the need for any user-defined significance threshold.

Cost-effectiveness of pharmacy-led versus conventionally delivered antiviral treatment for hepatitis C in patients receiving opioid substitution therapy: An economic evaluation alongside a pragmatic cluster randomised trial.

Background: Elimination targets for hepatitis C have been set across the world. In the UK almost 90% of infections are in people who inject drugs. Evidence shows community case-finding is effective at identifying and treating undiagnosed patients.

The Collaborative Care Model: Realizing healthcare values and increasing responsiveness in the pharmacy workforce.

Healthcare values are fairly ubiquitous across the globe, focusing on caring and respect, patient health, excellence in care delivery, and multi-stakeholder collaboration. Many individual pharmacists embrace these core values. However, their ability to honor these values is significantly determined by the nature of the system in which they work.

Are UK pharmacists ready for consultant-level practice? A cross-sectional survey of self-assessed development needs.

Objectives: The four nations of the United Kingdom (UK) have endorsed a new curriculum and credentialing process for consultant pharmacists. This study aimed to measure the self-reported consultant-level practice development needs of pharmacists across the UK.

Methods: The study was a cross-sectional electronic survey.

Transformation of identity in substance use as a pathway to recovery and the potential of treatment for hepatitis C: a systematic review.

Background And Aim: People who inject drugs are at high risk of contracting hepatitis C (HCV). The introduction of direct acting antiviral (DAA) drugs to treat HCV has the potential to transform care; however, uptake of DAAs has been slower than anticipated. The strong link between HCV and injecting drug use frames HCV as a shameful, stigmatising disease, reinforcing an 'addict' identity.