• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.79-84
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• 2012

Pediatric patients in hospital are at risk of malnutrition at admission and even during their hospitalization. Although the concept of nutritional support team (NST) was introduced to hospitals for optimal nutritional care since 1960s and the benefits of pediatric NST have been proven by many studies and reports in terms of patient clinical outcome and cost saving, the pediatric NST is not widespread yet. The pediatric NST composed of pediatricians, dieticians, pharmacist, and nutrition support nurses as core members dedicated to nutritional care in children should be independent of central NST or other disciplines, but closely cooperate with other teams in hospitals. There is no doubt that a multidisciplinary NST is an effective way to provide appropriate nutritional support to an individual patient. Therefore, the implementation of the pediatric NST in hospitals should be recommended to provide optimum nutritional support including enteral tube feeding and parenteral nutrition and to assess pediatric patients at risk of malnutrition.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.195-202
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• 2011

Generic medication market has been increased for economic reasons in Korea. Health authorities worldwide recommend the use of generic medications nowadays. However, patients in Korea are not familiar with the generic medications and considerable percent of those do not know the definition of the generic medications. The purpose of this study was to evaluate adults' knowledge and perception on the generic medications at community pharmacies in Korea. This study was a 11-questionnaire survey conducted from August 9, 2010 to August 27, 2010. Of the 204 respondents, 63 (30.9%) responded that they knew what a generic medication was, but only 16 (25.4%) of those answered that generic medications had the same efficacy as brand medications. When pharmacists were the source of generic medication information, more patients reported having knowledge about the definition of generic medications correctly compared with other sources. Patients with negative experience with generic medications within 6 months were more reluctant to generic substitution suggested by a pharmacist than those with positive experience. Based on the results of this study, further studies should be conducted to establish the best way to provide generic medication information for patients.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.120-127
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• 2010

Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify the type and frequency of chemotherapy-related prescribing errors and assess the pharmacist intervention in preventing potential harm. Methods: This study was performed in satellite pharmacy of oncology/hematology unit in tertiary teaching hospital from April to September, 2009. All chemotherapy prescribing errors detected by pharmacists were recorded. Frequency and characteristics of prescribing errors were analyzed. Pharmacists reviewed 28, 495 chemotherapy orders from 12,719 patients during 6-month periods. Results: A total of 835 prescription errors (2.93%) in 734 patients (5.77%) were detected by pharmacists. Alkylating agents (37.6%) followed by antimetabolite (23.35%), and mitotic inhibitors (21.44%) were the most prevalent classes in which errors occurs. The most common types of error detected were incorrect dose (34%), incorrect solution (33%), incorrect route (9%) and omission errors (8%). Changes in chemotherapy order due to pharmacists' intervention occurred in all error cases. Conclusion: Pharmacists' intervention in reviewing chemotherapy and drug orders intercepted potential harm due to prescribing errors. The current study provided strategies for reduction of medication errors.

• Journal of Pharmaceutical Investigation
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.119-126
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• 2007

Tablet splitting is used in pharmacy practice to adjust the dose to be administered. However, it also causes several problems such as undesirable effect for sustained release or enteric-coated dosage form, inaccuracy of dose, and pharmacist's safety by splitting hazardous drugs. This study investigated the current status of oral dosage form splitting for patients older than 19 years by analyzing Korea National Health Insurance Claims Database. Out of oral solid drugs prescribed (N=1,486,584) 9.8% of them included tablets (or capsules) split. There were some splitting cases even in sustained release (4.9%), enteric-coated forms (1.3%) and hazardous drugs (2.7%) that were selected by NIOSH (The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health). The most frequently split drugs were antihistamines, neuropsychotics and steroids. In case of digoxin and warfarin, unit doses in a domestic market were not diverse compared to foreign markets. Guidelines for splitting oral solid dosage forms, approval of diverse doses and conducting dose-response studies for the commonly splitting ingredients on Korean people are needed for the saff and effective use of oral solid drugs.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.105-109
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• 2009

In July 2008, The National Police Hospital has developed the CPOE system(Computerized Physician Order Entry system) which links the medicine master and introduced the new program for the injectable antimicrobial agents. After introducing new system, we wanted to check the management of oral antimicrobial agents. Because new system has limitation that new system control only the use of the injectable antimicrobial agents. So we tried to evaluate the use of oral levofloxacin, which was chosen by a medical specialist of the infection. We retrospectively analyzed the appropriateness of oral levofloxacin through EMR(Electric Medical Record) of 72 inpatients who received oral levofloxacin in National Police Hospital in December 2008. We applied the modified ASHP(American Society of Health- System Pharmacists) DUE(Drug Use Evaluation) criteria, which is composed of justification of drug use, critical indicators, complications and outcome measures. Acceptable cases of use of levofloxacin were 67(93.01%) and 57cases(79.2%) showed good outcome. However critical indicators were not performed very well. We want to suggest the new system for the management of the medical therapeutics by the pharmacist in charge.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.27-33
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• 2015

Background: Since November 2012, some of over-the-counter (OTC) medications have been sold in convenience store without pharmacist' s supervision. We purposed to examine if the product labels of OTCs provide sufficient information that is appropriate for consumers who may have low health literacy. Methods: We compared the difficulty of words that are utilized in pharmaceutical product labels of interest (intervention) with those in the $6^{th}$ grade textbook (control). Pharmaceutical products of interest were comprised of 13 OTCs which have been sold currently in convenience stores. We grouped words into the 4 levels of difficulty based on the Korean Vocabulary Classification for Education, and statistically tested words frequency in each level between OTCs and control. Results: The 13 OTC labels included lay language (easier or equal to language used in primary school) about 10% less; professional language about 10% more (p < 0.001 in all). Labels for analgesics had the longest and most difficult information, followed by common cold preparations, muscle pain relievers as plaster or cataplasma and digestives. Conclusion: The 13 OTC labels might fail to provide appropriate information for safety use by consumers in terms of the difficulty level of words. The improvement of labels of OTC medications and consumer education strategies are called for safety use of OTC medications sold in convenience stores.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.7-12
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• 2000

This study is intended to provide information to menopausal women so they can control their symptoms. The basic data was gathered by interviewed 200 postmenopausal women on a HRT program. The women were questioned about their perception of menopause and compliance to the therapy with the fellowing result $71.7\%$ of the women experianced hot flushes, and $64.1\%$ experienced short term memory loss and some psychological symptoms. The women reported that these symptoms reduced their quality of life. $53\%$ of the women responded that menopause is a natural state and $59.1\%$ agreed to HRT based on their doctor's recommendation. $76.2\%$ of the women reported that HRT was effective, with $74.7\%$ reporting reduced hot flush symptoms $67.3\%$ of the women reported compliance with the medication schedule. and $43.9\%$ reported periodic non-compliance. Although HRT has been shown to be an effective treatment, the study found that less than $10\%$ of postmenopausal women are currently being treated and these treated women are generally negligent in continuing with HRT, The study recommends that a program be developed that explains the benefits and risks of HRT to be distributed to patients being treated by doctors and pharmacists. In conclusions, It is very important for hormone replacement therapy on menopausal women to take more intensive medication consultation to increase medication compliance and effectiveness of pharmacotherapy.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.80-89
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• 2014

The study objectives were to investigate the attitude of Ajou University pharmacy students toward pharmaceutical care and to identify their perceived barriers to its provision. Secondarily, their career choices and influential factors for career decision were assessed. Method: A cross-sectional survey of Ajou University pharmacy students in all professional years was conducted in May 2014. Results: Over 2 weeks, a total of 123 students participated in the study (100% response rate). All respondents agreed that pharmaceutical care is the right direction for the provision to be headed and that pharmaceutical care will improve patient health. However, professional year was inversely associated with the degree of positive attitude toward pharmaceutical care. Highly perceived barriers to pharmaceutical care included poor image of pharmacist's role in society (67%) and lack of access to the patient medical record in the pharmacy (65%). Work environment, benefits, and salary were top three influential factors for career plans, and $6^{th}$ year students considered salary most important. Patient-oriented practices (hospital and community pharmacy) were the most preferred career choices among $6^{th}$ year students. Conclusion: Pharmacy clerkships appeared to have a positive influence on career choices of those students. Efforts should be exerted to improve pharmacy clerkships and to promote pharmaceutical care.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.173-178
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• 2009

This study aimed to analyze the master's and doctoral theses in social pharmacy field over the past 10 years in Korea. Theses were searched based on the Korean National Assembly Digital Library System, and descriptive analyses were conducted using SAS. Among 669 theses, pharmacy/pharmacist accounted for 24.8%, followed by drug misuse with 16.9%, and pharmaceuticals industry related theses with 16.6%. Graduate school of pharmacy was responsible for a share of 27.2%, suggesting that approximately a quarter of the entire social pharmacy related theses are studies at the school of pharmacy.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.12-20
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• 2021

The World Anti-Doping Agency has made efforts to promote the safe use of medications and prevent doping in sports globally. International standards have been established and experts have advocate anti-doping education to athletes and healthcare professionals. Pharmacists are expected to participate in the pharmaceutical care activity of sports medicine in protecting the athletes while providing the spirits of clean sports. In this review, we described the pharmacists' roles and functions in six areas of sports pharmaceutical care: awareness, treatment, prevention, optimization, abuse, and monitoring. Sports pharmacists should be able to prevent inappropriate drug use and manage athletes' illness and injury using pharmacotherapy. Further pharmacists should actively involve to educate and counsel athletes, trainers, and healthcare teams. In conclusion, pharmacists are expected to play important roles in sports pharmacy, which is the emerging area of specialized pharmaceutical care services.