Grace M. Kuo

This study evaluated the implementation and outcomes of a pharmacogenomics education program among pharmacists. Continuing education lectures were presented at local, state and national pharmacy conferences. Six hundred and seventy three pharmacist participants (mean ± standard deviation: 45 ± 14 years of age with 19 ± 13 years of practice experience) completed program evaluations. Participants' knowledge and overall ability to address pharmacogenomics testing significantly improved (p < 0.001). More than 50% rated self-efficacy for putting pharmacogenomics knowledge into clinical practice to be likely or very likely. Attitudes toward increasing the number of patients to educate, updating pharmacogenomics knowledge, and providing advice were 39, 76 and 64%, respectively. Participants rated program components to be useful or very useful, and the quality of the program format, program content and audience response system as good, very good or excellent. Through live continuing education presentations at pharmacy conferences, participants showed significant increases in knowledge and their overall ability to address pharmacogenomics testing with patients.

Objective: To describe and evaluate drug errors and related clinical pharmacist interventions. Design: Cross‐sectional observational study with an online data collection form. Setting: A merican C ollege of C linical P harmacy practice‐based research network ( ACCP PBRN ). Participants: A total of 62 clinical pharmacists from the ACCP PBRN who provided direct patient care in the inpatient and outpatient practice settings. Intervention: Clinical pharmacist participants identified drug errors in their usual practices and submitted online error reports over a period of 14 consecutive days during 2010. Measurements and Main Results: The 62 clinical pharmacists submitted 924 reports; of these, 779 reports from 53 clinical pharmacists had complete data. Drug errors occurred in both the inpatient (61%) and outpatient (39%) settings. Therapeutic categories most frequently associated with drug errors were systemic antiinfective (25%), hematologic (21%), and cardiovascular (19%) drugs. Approximately 95% of drug errors did not result in patient harm; however, 33 drug errors resulted in treatment or medical intervention, 6 resulted in hospitalization, 2 required treatment to sustain life, and 1 resulted in death. The types of drug errors were categorized as prescribing (53%), administering (13%), monitoring (13%), dispensing (10%), documenting (7%), and miscellaneous (4%). Clinical pharmacist interventions included communication (54%), drug changes (35%), and monitoring (9%). Approximately 89% of clinical pharmacist recommendations were accepted by the prescribers: 5% with drug therapy modifications, 28% due to clinical pharmacist prescriptive authority, and 56% without drug therapy modifications. Conclusion: This study provides insight into the role clinical pharmacists play with regard to drug error interventions using a national practice‐based research network. Most drug errors reported by clinical pharmacists in the United States did not result in patient harm; however, severe harm and death due to drug errors were reported. Drug error types, therapeutic categories, and clinical pharmacist interventions varied between the inpatient and outpatient settings. Nearly half of reported errors were prevented by clinical pharmacists before the drugs reached the patients. The majority of clinical pharmacist recommendations were accepted by prescribers.

In recent years waterpipe smoking has become a popular practice amongst young adults in eastern Mediterranean countries, including Iran. The aim of this study was to assess waterpipe smoking perceptions and practices among first-year health sciences university students in Iran and to identify factors associated with the initiation and maintenance of waterpipe use in this population.

Telemedicine and genomic medicine are two rapidly developing areas driven in part by new technologies. Together they offer the promise of new configurations of health care without time or distance boundaries. Telemedicine literally means “distance” (Greek word “Tele”) and “to heal” (Latin word “Mederi”). It is broadly defined to include applications relevant to patient care, professional and patient education, research, and public health. Telemedicine has the potential to extend personalized medicine and clinical services beyond national boundaries to enhance global health collaborations. Conceivably, the diffusion of genomic information can be accelerated to reach beyond printed textbooks by utilizing multimedia and interactive features of telemedicine. To this end, delivery methods and in particular, technologies of telemedicine affect several areas of genomic practice. Telemedicine has been used to facilitate communication, medical care, and the dissemination of genomic information relevant to both researchers and clinicians so that new information can quickly become available. In this paper, the definition of telemedicine is provided, followed by the historical development of its technologies and a summary of where telemedicine has been applied in the general medical practice as well as the areas related to genomic practice. Examples of where telemedicine has been used as a tool to disseminate genomic information, including dbSNP and dbGaP, PharmGKB, Direct-to-consumer genetic testing, PLoS, SciVee, and PharmGenEd ™ , are described in this paper. In addition, we discuss the synergies and challenges that continue to impact the implementation of telemedicine tools for genomic applications.

Clinical application of evidence-based pharmacogenomics information has the potential to help healthcare professionals provide safe and effective medication management to patients. However, there is a gap between the advances of pharmacogenomics discovery and the health professionals' knowledge regarding pharmacogenomics testing and therapeutic uses. Furthermore, pharmacogenomics education materials for healthcare professionals have not been readily available or accessible. Pharmacogenomics Education Program (PharmGenEd™) is an evidence-based pharmacogenomics education program developed at the University of California San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and the School of Medicine (CA, USA), with funding support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Program components include continuing education modules, train-the-trainer materials and shared curriculum modules based on therapeutic topics, and virtual communities with online resources.