Browsing by discipline "Social Pharmacy"

In Finland pharmaceutical policy is a part of health policy. It concerns social decision making on pharmaceutical sector and people and organizations around pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceutical policy 2020 strategy was prepared by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, based on a stakeholder (administrative authorities, education and research, industry, medicine wholesalers, patients, pharmacies, professional organizations, public sector) analysis. In Finnish politics this is an assignment of a new kind of evidence-informed policy making (EIPM), which is participative, transparent and democratic. The two main objectives of this study were to evaluate the present state of pharmaceutical policy in Finland and discern the emphasis of pharmaceutical policy by the stakeholders' point of view in the future. The study gave the possibility to a deeper analysis of stakeholders' opinions of the Finnish pharmaceutical policy in the beginning of the year 2010 than it was possible in the official Pharmaceutical policy 2020 strategy document. Besides this, research itself was a way of practicing evidence-based policy. The SWOT-analysis were conducted among key-stakeholders as a main material of this qualitative research (n=19, response rate 59). SWOT analyses included present strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats regarding Finnish drug discipline of a stakeholder's point of view. Furthermore, an e-survey (n=10, response rate 31) was conducted in the end of the strategy process in order to enablegive the stakeholders to give feedback of the Pharmaceutical policy 2020 strategy process. The survey also measured that was the consensus among stakeholders reached during the strategy process. It prevailed a very good mutual understanding. Results of the research were clearly readable on the official strategy paper as well as the research could go deeper in the details of stakeholders' words than the official strategy paper. The most important emphases in the results were noticeable: condense the cooperation of stakeholders among the drug discipline to ensure efficient, good quality and patient safe pharmaceutical service and better utilizing of pharmaceutical knowledge among social and public health service. The results of this research can be utilized later as a starting point to measure how Pharmaceutical policy 2020 strategy has came true. With help of this study it's also possible to verify the strategy process and Finnish national medicine policy in the 2020 decade. In Ministry of Social Affairs and Health it is also possible to think, what kind of legislative changes it demands to implement the needed changes among the drug discipline.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease with prevalence around 0.8 % in Finland. Joint inflammation causes pain, tenderness and swelling in joint as well as loss of functional and work capacity. Patients need healthcare resources and medical treatments cause substantial costs to patient and society. Severity of RA can be measured by Disease Activity Score (DAS28) and Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ). Previous studies suggest these measures are related to higher direct and indirect cost. The aims of this study are to determine cost of RA in Finland and analyse cost by disease activity and functional disability. Literature review was performed by using some methods from systematic reviews to identify previous studies examining cost of RA by DAS28 and HAQ scores. Secondly in this master thesis was made a quantitative cost analysis which study population was identified from the National register for Biologics in Finland (ROB-FIN) and patient records of the Central Finland Central Hospital. The cost data for direct and productivity costs was received from Finnish national registries. Costs were determined from the followed six months after patients' (N=2285) first routine outpatient visit to specialized healthcare. Distribution of costs was examined by DAS28 and HAQ score based classification. Additionally cost related to RA was determined separately between biologic and non-biologic drug users. Total average costs of the study population were 11 720 € biannually. Direct costs, productivity costs and total costs were higher for patients with higher DAS28 and HAQ scores. Increase in average total costs between best and worst DAS28 and HAQ classifications were 7817 -15 838 € and 8545 - 16 718 €, respectively. In the cost categories changes in both directions were detected between different DAS28 and HAQ score classifications. Drug costs comprised largest part of direct costs (56 %). RA related average total costs increased from best to worst DAS28 and HAQ class for both biologic and non-biologic drug users (p<0,01). Similar study based real life register data is not previous made in Finland. Studies in other countries can`t be directly adapted to Finnish healthcare system, treatment traditions and productivity costs. This study provides information for real-life cots of RA and how they are related to disease activity and functional disability. This information can be used in modelling of cost-effectiveness.

Individually tailored smoking cessation, SC, service provided by community pharmacies is a chargeable special service for customers motivated to quit smoking. The service is based on the PAS service model developed in Great Britain and it has been provided by Finnish community pharmacies since 2006. It includes 4-6 meetings with a specially trained pharmacist, who provides counselling, support, SC plan and follow-up. In this pilot study, the service was investigated from customers' viewpoint, assessing their SC outcomes and experiences. The pilot study was a cooperation project of Division of Social Pharmacy and Association of Finnish Pharmacies. It was a part of a larger SC project co-ordinated by Pulmonary Association Heli and financed by Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. This pilot study assessed the feasibility of the service from customer's viewpoint. It assessed weather the service could increase customers' ability to stay abstinent in different phases of the service. Customers' experiences in relation to SC service and SC itself were also assessed. 14 voluntary pharmacies in different geographical locations in Finland participated in this intervention study and they recruited altogether 36 customers. Before customer recruitment pharmacies received education and introduction of the SC service provided by the Association of Finnish Pharmacies. As part of study protocol, the pharmacies informed local healthcare professionals about the pilot study and asked them to send suitable customers to the service. Pharmacies were paid an expert reward for each customer and they were able to provide SC service to the customers either free or with a low charge. Customers' smoking status and experiences about SC service were assessed with two enquiry forms, which they had filled at the beginning of the service and after three months they had started the service. Their background information was collected with specific background forms during the first meeting and their progress in SC service was investigated by service progress forms. 20 of the 28 customers who returned the first enquiry form and 13 of the 17 customers who returned the second enquiry form were abstinent (55,6 % and 36,1 % of all customers, respectively). All the quitters used some pharmaceutical treatment. Customers who quitted assessed their ability to stay abstinent higher than those who were unable to quit, at the outset and during the service. The customers considered service useful and support of the pharmacist was found important. The customers also considered it significant for pharmacies to provide the SC service. Approximately 32 % of the customers who returned the first enquiry form and 41 % who returned the second enquiry form would pay for the service. They would pay 45 € on average (10-100 €). Multidisciplinary service model was not working as expected, since only a small number of customers were recruited by other healthcare professionals. As a result some of the pharmacies recruited customers also from the pharmacy counter without any contact to other healthcare. 36 % of the 36 customers were abstinent at three months. The control group, planned for the pilot study, failed in recruitment and thus we can only compare our findings to other international studies of the SC service, which have provided similar results. Individually tailored SC service provided by pharmacies is suitable SC support for motivated customers. Customers considered service important and useful, but poor willingness to pay creates challenges for pharmacies to provide this kind of service.

In a pharmacotherapy process prescriber, provider, administrator and evaluator of the effects of medication cooperate in a coordinated way to ensure optimum outcomes of the patient's medications. This requires that all professionals involved in the pharmacotherapy process know their functions and responsibilities in an interprofessional team. No previous studies have explored legislative facilitators and barriers that have impact on the interprofessional pharmacotherapy process even though interprofessional collaboration for assuring safe and effective pharmacotherapy is one of the main objectives of Medicines Policy 2020 in Finland (Ministry of Social Affairs and Health 2011). The aim of this study was to examine how legislation prevents or facilitates the interprofessional pharmacotherapy process. The data consisted acts, decrees, regulations and directives concerning pharmacotherapy process in the healthcare. Changes in the Finnish legislation from 1990 until present were studied, taking also into account the European Union legislation since 1995 when Finland became a member. Research method was qualitative content analysis. A modified form of the causal diagram of the impact of law and legal practices on public health system performance by Burris et al (2012) was used as a theoretical framework. Interprofessional collaboration applicable to pharmacotherapy process has been taken into account in the main enactments. These enactments concern rights and duties of healthcare professional, patient’s rights, resources required in healthcare, communication and information transfer, and pharmacotherapy process. Enactments that complicate the interprofessional pharmacotherapy process relate especially to communicational barriers. Facilitating enactments include guidelines ensuring coordinated clinical practice for effective and safe medication use and improved communication, collaboration and patient-centeredness as well as accessibility of cross-border healthcare. A trend was observed that the legislation enacted on the 21st Century put more emphasis on interprofessional collaboration, development of technology and mobility of citizens. According to this study there are more facilitators than barriers for interprofessional pharmacotherapy process. Recent enactments even emphasize more interprofessional cooperation in health care than did those enacted before the 21st Century. Still, enactments are general: they should be made more detailed to give a better understanding of interprofessional cooperation, also related to the pharmacotherapy process for safe, effective and evidence-based medication use.

Medication safety meaning the safety of using medication is an important part of patient safety. Medication errors are the most common preventable threats of patient safety. Medication errors can occur in all stages of the medication process. Rather than blaming individuals involved in the process, incidents should be evaluated based on system thinking with an aim of identifying system and process-based weaknesses allowing errors to happen. James Reason's human error theory provides a good framework to investigate the topic from this perspective. The objective of this study was to gather information on the medication errors based on the Patient Insurance Centre 2013-2014 data of compensated medication errors. One of the aims was to identify different types of medication errors and gather information on their backgrounds and drugs involved. Another aim was to investigate the causes behind the medication errors and the views of the people involved on the contributin factors of these errors. Additionally the study aimed at identifying situations where interprofessional collaboration could have prevented medication errors from occurring. Finally the results of the study were also compared with the results of the earlier studies done using similar data. The data of the study consisted of 205 cases where medication error had caused compensated patient injury. Factors behind the errors were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The examples of most common cases were investigated more in depth through simplified root-cause analysis. Content analyses were used to gather information on the views of the people involved in errors as well as on the possibilities of preventing errors through interprofessional collaboration. The most frequent error type was omission of medication. The majority of the errors occurred in the early stages of the process when decisions on medication and treatment were done. There were altogether 250 drugs in the data out of which 98 different active ingredients were identified. Antithrombotic agents were the most common therapeutic group causing medication errors. 37% of all drugs included in data were classified as high alert medicines. More efficient use of the interprofessional collaboration could have prevented several medication errors. The number of medication errors had somewhat increased compared to earlier studies but the profiles of errors were very similar. The data of Patient Insurance Centre provides valuable information on medication errors across Finland. More accurate information on factors leading to medication errors could be obtained by improving voluntary nationwide reporting. This would make it easier to develop operating models that improve patient safety.

Atrial fibrillation is the most common sustained cardiac arythmia. It has been estimated that there will be 14 to 17 million atrial fibrillation patients in Europe by the year 2030. In Finland, there are over 50 000 atrial fibrillation patients. The prevalence of atrial fibrillation increases by age. In addition to age, people who have hearth failure, high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, valvular hearth disease, diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease or who suffer from obesity have increased prevalence. Atrial fibrillation is usually not a life threatening condition. However, people who suffer from atrial fibrillation have a greater risk of the stroke compared with people who have normal sinus rhythm. Warfarin has been the standard treatment for preventing the stroke in atrial fibrillation patients. However, there are many inconveniences in warfarin therapy such as food and drug interactions and frequent laboratory visits. Therefore, new oral anticoagulants have been introduced to prevent the stroke in non-valvular atrial fibrillation. These new drugs apixaban, dabigatran, edoxaban and rivaroxaban are more expensive than warfarin. Many people suffer from atrial fibrillation and the number of atrial fibrillation patients is increasing. Due to the expected increase in the number of atrial fibrillation patients in future the costs of the new drugs have led to a concern for their impact on the health care budget. The knowledge of the cost-effectiveness of the new anticoagulants is important for decision making. In this Master's thesis, the cost-effectiveness of rivaroxaban was compared with warfarin for stroke prevention in non-valvular atrial fibrillation. Systematic literature review was used as the study method and 363 studies were screened and 23 of them filled the inclusion criteria. One was a previously published systematic review and 22 were cost-utility studies. All of the cost-utility studies had used decision analytic modelling. The studies were conducted in 13 different countries. In the cost-utility studies included in this systematic review there was a great variability in the cost-effectiveness of rivaroxaban compared with warfarin. Rivaroxaban was cost-effective in more than half of the studies, for example in Belgium, Italy, Norway and Singapore. However, in China, Thailand and Slovenia the cost-effectiveness could not be established. Contradictory cost-effectiveness results were obtained in studies conducted in Germany, Canada and USA. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio varied from 2580 € to 174915 € per quality adjusted life years (QALY) gained with warfarin over all the 22 cost-utility studies. In studies conducted in Europe the incremental cost effectiveness ratio varied from 4188 € 139163 €/QALY gained. In studies where rivaroxaban, apixaban, dabigatran and warfarin were compared together using an indirect comparison or a network meta-analysis it seemed that rivaroxaban was not the optimal treatment. The most common adverse effect of anticoagulation treatment is bleeding. This complication was included in all the cost-utility studies. However, there was only some uniformity of the bleeding events reported. In most cost-utility studies the acute care cost of intracranial hemorrhages was reported and in many studies, also the long term costs. The cost-utility studies included in this systematic review were quite heterogeneous. Because they were done in different countries their health care settings, treatment options and costs were different. There were also differences in cost-effective models. Modell structure, settings, data and assumptions were different. Due to the heterogeneous nature of the studies, no unambiguous answer could be reached to the question concerning the cost-effectiveness of rivaroxaban compared with warfarin. The quality assessment of the cost-utility studies revealed that some quality criteria were not met. Transferability of the results from one country to the other seemed to be poor. The strength of this master's thesis is the comprehensive literature search concerning the cost-effectiveness of rivaroxaban compared with warfarin. Also, the reporting of methods and results are transparent. There are also limitations in this study. One person was conducting the literature search, data extraction and quality assessment. This might have increased the risk for subjective interpretations and errors.

Stakes ja Lääkehoidon kehittämiskeskus määrittelevät lääkitysturvallisuuden lääkkeiden käyttöön liittyväksi turvallisuudeksi, joka voi vaarantua missä tahansa lääkehoidon vaiheessa. Yksi lääkitysturvallisuuteen vaikuttava lääkehoidon osa-alue on lääkeneuvonta. Koska lääkkeitä käytetään ammattilaisilta saatujen ohjeiden perusteella, on lääkeneuvonnan kehittäminen tärkeää. Lääketietouden lisäämisen ohella lääkeneuvonnalla voidaan vaikuttaa lääkkeiden käyttäjien asenteisiin. Lapsen lääkitykseen kohdistuva lääkeneuvonta on haasteellista, sillä huomio täytyy kiinnittää sekä lapseen että vanhempiin. Tutkimuksessa selvitettiin sairaalasta kotiutettavan lapsipotilaan lääkeneuvonnan sisältöä ja kehitystarpeita sekä lääkeneuvonnan toteuttamiseen vaikuttavia asioita. Lisäksi tutkimuksen avulla selvitettiin vanhemmille kotiutuksen jälkeen ongelmallisia lääkehoitoon liittyviä asioita. Tutkimusaineistona käytettiin HUS:n Lastenklinikalla työskentelevien sairaanhoitajien teemahaastatteluja. Toisena aineistona käytettiin vanhempien osastolle soittamia, lasten kotiutuksen jälkeistä lääkehoitoa koskevia puheluita. Aineiston keräys tapahtui hoitajien avulla heidän kirjatessaan tarkoitusta varten muodostettuun lomakkeeseen ylös ne lääkehoitoa koskevat kysymykset, joita vanhemmat soittavat osastoille kotiutuksen jälkeen. Keräykseen osallistuivat HUS:n infektio-osaston, lastentautien osaston ja munuais- ja elinsiirto-osaston hoitajat. Syyskuun 2009 aikana suoritettuihin teemahaastatteluihin osallistui 10 infektio-osaston sairaanhoitajaa. Kuten aiemmissakin tutkimuksissa on todettu, sairaanhoitajilla on suuri vastuu sairaalassa annettavasta lääkeneuvonnasta. Tutkimustulosten mukaan sairaanhoitajat pyrkivät kattavaan lääkeneuvontaan. He painottavat erityisesti perheen pärjäämistä kotona havainnollistamalla antamaansa neuvontaa kirjallisen materiaalin ja antotekniikkaan liittyvän opetuksen avulla, sekä kiinnittämällä huomiota perheen asenteisiin lääkehoitoa kohtaan. Esteinä lääkeneuvonnan toteuttamiselle koettiin sekä vanhempien että hoitajien kiire, joidenkin vanhempien vääränlainen asenne, hoitajien ja vanhempien kielimuurista johtuvat kommunikaatio-ongelmat, neuvontatilan rauhattomuus sekä hoitajille suunnattujen yhteisten ohjeistuksien puute. Lääkeneuvontaan liittyviksi kehityskohteiksi nousivat sekä vanhemmille että hoitajille suunnatut kirjalliset ohjeet, lääkkeisiin liittyvä lisäkoulutus, neuvonnan ajoitus, neuvontatila ja osastofarmaseutin osallistuminen neuvontaan. Kahden kuukauden tutkimusjakson aikana loka-marraskuussa 2009 kirjattiin osastoilla yhteensä 26 kotiutetun potilaan lääkehoitoa koskenutta puhelua. Infektio-osastolle tulleet yhteydenotot (n=7) koskivat pääasiassa lääkkeen annosteluaikoja ja kuurin tarkkaa kestoa. Yksi puhelu koski haittavaikutuksen ilmaantumista ja yksi antotekniikkaa. Lastentautien osastolle tulleista puheluista (n=11) kymmenen koski insuliinien annostusten muuttamista verensokeriarvojen korjaamiseksi. Munuais- ja elinsiirto-osastolle vanhemmat soittivat yleensä kysyäkseen annosteluun liittyviä erityisasioita, kuten annostelua oksennuksen, väärän lääkkeenantoajan ja yliannoksen jälkeen.Munuais- ja elinsiirto-osastolla puheluita kirjattiin yhteensä kahdeksan. Tutkimuksen mukaan hoitajien antama lääkeneuvonta on perusteellista. Lääkehoitoon liittyviä asioita jää kuitenkin vanhemmille epäselväksi, vaikka huomiota kiinnitetään niihin asioihin, joissa vanhemmat tarvitsevat eniten tukea. Osastoille kehitetyn lääkeneuvontamallin tarkoitus on auttaa hoitajia lääkeneuvonnan toteutuksessa, mutta huomionarvoista olisi myös osastofarmaseutin mahdollisuus osallistua neuvontatilanteeseen. Jatkotutkimuksissa olisi hyvä selvittää, millä tavalla neuvontamallia hyödynnetään neuvonnan toteuttamisessa. Erityisesti lapsille suunnattua lääkeneuvontaa on kehitettävä.

Cholesterol-lowering statins are well-tolerated and effective in prevention of cardiovascular diseases. One of the target groups in treatment of dyslipidaemia is type 2 diabetics, who benefit from reducing cholesterol levels even without a history of cardiovascular disease or high cholesterol levels. Common adverse events associated with statins are myopathy and an increase in liver enzymes. Statins have also been shown to slightly increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and increase blood glucose levels. The risk seems to increase with higher doses. Higher doses, however, prevent cardiovascular events more than moderate doses. In this cohort study we assessed the relationship between statins and development of diabetes in a Finnish diabetes prevention study. In addition, we assessed the effects of statins on blood glucose levels. The diabetes risk associated with statins was evaluated by a parametric survival-analysis and the impact on blood glucose levels by a mixture model. The material consisted of the follow-up data from the Diabetes Prevention Study (DPS) from year 1993 to 2009 and along with that statistics on reimbursements for prescription medicines from Kela's reimbursement database. The purpose of DPS was initially to determine if type 2 diabetes can be prevented or delayed by lifestyle intervention. Participants with impaired glucose tolerance were randomly assigned to the intervention group or the control group. The intervention group received intensive and individual counseling on healthy lifestyle while the control group was given general information on health behavior. The study revealed that 36,8 % (n = 182) of the participants had used statins during follow-up. Statin use was more common in the intervention than the control group. Simvastatin was the most used statin and statins had been used for four years on average. Statins were associated with a slight increase in risk of developing diabetes and an increase in fasting plasma glucose and 2 h glucose levels. The risk of diabetes was slighter in the intervention group. Further research is needed to determine the mechanism causing the increase in risk of diabetes, if different statins differ in the extent of risk and if a specific patient group or characteristic is more vulnerable to develop diabetes when exposed to statins. The diabetes risk associated with statins should be taken into account when designing a statin trial. Develoment of diabetes should be a pre-specified endpoint and blood glucose and insulin levels monitored during follow-up.

Various cardiovascular diseases cause a significant portion of the direct healthcare costs. For this reason it is important to develop effective treatment strategies. In the treatment of heart failure maintaining healthy lifestyle is an important issue in addition to medical treatment. The aim of this study is to find out whether multidisciplinary interventions in the treatment of heart failure have had better patient outcomes and/or cost savings compared to the standard care and has a certain intervention method proved itself to be more effective than another. The study focuses on the published material in the last ten years, which is compared with prior systematic review about the same topic. The study was conducted as a systematic review. The literature search was performed on Medline (Ovid), CINAHL and Scopus databases. MeSH-terms and other keywords were used in the search. Search was limited to English-language studies. The article selection was made after 06.01.2004 published studies based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. A quality assessment was made to the selected articles. Only valid articles exceeding 60 % of the maximum points were selected to this review. Literature search found 848 references, of which quality assessment was carried out for 17 articles. 12 articles were selected to this review. Based on statistical significance mortality rate was reduced only rarely. There were lots of heterogeneity in the results for reducing hospitalizations or improving the quality of life. Hospital or clinic-based interventions seemed to be slightly more effective than other intervention methods. There have been no major changes in the intervention methods, only the methods using mailed materials have been left out. Also the outcomes used are similar to those in the past, although validated instruments in different areas of determining the effectiveness have not been developed. This study found no clear evidence about the effectiveness of the treatment programs. Hospital or clinic-based interventions might be more effective than other intervention methods. There is a lot of research about the issue, but high-quality cost-effectiveness studies are lagging. The results from different studies are hard to integrate because the ways to measure vary. The effectiveness of the intervention depends on many factors, and the sheer increase in the knowledge does not seem to be crucial. For assessing the profitability of multidisciplinary interventions there is a need for a high-quality research about the cost-effectiveness of the treatment programs.