Breaking Bad News in Ethnic Settings: Perspectives of Patients and Families in Northern Sri Lanka.

Purpose: The discussion of a cancer diagnosis and prognosis often is difficult. This study explored the expectations of Tamil-speaking patients with cancer and their families with respect to receiving their cancer diagnosis in northern Sri Lanka.

Methods: This exploratory, descriptive, qualitative study used semistructured interviews.

Drug utilization, prescription errors and potential drug-drug interactions: an experience in rural Sri Lanka.

Background: Prescription writing is a process which transfers the therapeutic message from the prescriber to the patient through the pharmacist. Prescribing errors, drug duplication and potential drug-drug interactions (pDDI) in prescriptions lead to medication error. Assessment of the above was made in prescriptions dispensed at State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC), Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka.