Adaptation of WHO COVID-19 guidelines by Caribbean countries and territories.

The normative role of the World Health Organization (WHO) involves creating evidence-based, principled guidelines to guide its Member States in making well-informed public health decisions. While these guidelines often need to be adapted to ensure contextual relevance, foster better implementation and adherence, adapting existing guidelines is more efficient than creating new ones. Here we describe the adaptation of the WHO coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) living guideline on pharmacological interventions for the Caribbean using the grading of recommendations, assessment, development and evaluation (GRADE)-ADOLOPMENT method.

Pharmaceutical procurement among public sector procurers in CARICOM.

Objective: To examine multiple aspects of the medicines in CARICOM procurement markets, including manufacturer headquarters location, regulatory history, and type (innovator versus generic); the proportion of World Health Organization (WHO) essential medicines; and the most expensive medicines procured.

Methods: An analysis of procurement information from selected CARICOM procurers. Four public sector procurement lists were obtained based on public availability or sharing of data from public sector procurers.

An evaluation of the Caribbean regulatory system centralized assessment process for medicines submitted 2017-2018 using the OpERA methodology.

Background: The Caribbean Regulatory System is a centralized medicine assessment procedure established to serve the needs of the Member States of the CARICOM region. In order to better understand the effectiveness and efficiency of the processes implemented by the Caribbean Regulatory System for the regulatory assessment of medicines for the region, the system has been participating in the Optimizing Efficiencies in Regulatory Agencies (OpERA) program, a multinational endeavor to characterize the assessment procedures and the corollary metrics associated with medicine review activities in regulatory agencies and regional regulatory initiatives.

Methods: The OpERA tool was used to collect process and specific milestone data for products approved by the Caribbean Regulatory System during 2017 ( = 10) and 2018 ( = 11).

Bachelor of pharmacy graduates' perceptions of the pharmacy administration curriculum in Trinidad and Tobago.

Introduction: As the profession of pharmacy has evolved, pharmacy education has developed to include competencies and skills related to pharmacy administration services. Competencies taught in pharmacy administration courses are expected to provide graduates with skills to effectively undertake administrative functions. Our study aimed to assess perceptions about knowledge and skills gained by the pharmacists during the Pharmacy Administration course at the School of Pharmacy, the University of the West Indies (UWI), Trinidad and Tobago.

Students' perceptions of a blended learning pharmacy seminar course in a Caribbean school of pharmacy.

Background And Purpose: Blended learning (BL) integrates face-to-face and online instructional methods, with applications in pharmacy education. This study aimed to assess pharmacy students' perceptions of BL in a pharmacy seminar course at The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine campus, Trinidad and Tobago.

Patient, Physician, and Health-System Factors Influencing the Quality of Antidepressant and Sedative Prescribing for Older, Community-Dwelling Adults.

Objective: To identify determinants of potentially inappropriate (PI) antidepressant and anxiolytic/sedative prescribing for older, community-dwelling adults.

Data Sources/study Setting: Office visits from the 2010 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.

Study Design: A cross-sectional study measuring associations between various patient and physician factors and prescribing of PI antidepressants, and PI sedatives among elderly, using Beers 2012/2015 criteria, a clinical decision model, and multivariate logistic regressions.

Stakeholder perspectives on outcome expectations of pharmacy graduates from a Caribbean school of pharmacy.

Objectives: To explore stakeholders' views regarding the performance of pharmacy graduates upon entering the workforce and to identify curricular deficiencies and possible solutions.

Methods: Practicing pharmacists, many of whom were members of government and pharmacy organizations, were asked to complete a 40-item questionnaire to determine their views regarding the educational outcomes of pharmacy graduates from a Caribbean pharmacy school. In addition, the stakeholders participated in focus group discussions to capture feedback not gathered on the questionnaire.