• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.57 no.3
• /
• pp.212-222
• /
• 2024

Objectives: Epilepsy is a chronic disease that requires long-term treatment and intervention from health workers. Medication adherence is a factor that influences the success of therapy for patients with epilepsy. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the role of pharmacists in improving the clinical outcomes of epilepsy patients, focusing on medication adherence. Methods: A scoping literature search was conducted through the ScienceDirect, PubMed, and Google Scholar databases. The literature search included all original articles published in English until August 2023 for which the full text was available. This scoping review was carried out by a team consisting of pharmacists and neurologists following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) Extension for Scoping Reviews and the Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines, including 5 steps: identifying research questions, finding relevant articles, selecting articles, presenting data, and compiling the results. Results: The literature search yielded 10 studies that discussed pharmacist interventions for patients with epilepsy. Five articles described educational interventions involving drug-related counseling with pharmacists. Two articles focused on similar pharmacist interventions through patient education, both verbal and written. Three articles discussed an epilepsy review service, a multidisciplinary intervention program involving pharmacists and other health workers, and a mixed intervention combining education and training with therapy-based behavioral interventions. Conclusions: Pharmacist interventions have been shown to be effective in improving medication adherence in patients with epilepsy. Furthermore, these interventions play a crucial role in improving other therapeutic outcomes, including patients' knowledge of self-management, perceptions of illness, the efficacy of antiepileptic drugs in controlling seizures, and overall quality of life.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
• /
• v.21 no.48
• /
• pp.223-232
• /
• 1998

In order to improve the hospital service quality, some hospitals try to reduce the outpatients' waiting time in the hospital. One of the dissatisfied service items at the hospital is the long waiting time to take the prescribed medicine. In most cases, the smaller the number of pharmacists, the longer could be the waiting time. The suggestion of criteria for optimal allocation of appropriate number of pharmacists must be very important to manage the hospital pharmacy. In this paper, we suggest the method to figure out appropriate number of pharmacists through the real situation study at the Sampling Medical Center Pharmacy. We present the simulation study results using the simulation package ARENA and the analysis of statistical distribution of the arriving prescriptions. The result of this research could be applied to the other service business to figure out the optimal allocation of available human resources and to do the job analysis for better service quality.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
• /
• v.51 no.5
• /
• pp.318-326
• /
• 2007

The elderly are more likely to have chronic medical conditions that require multiple drug therapies. Purposes of this study are to reveal necessity of elderly patient education by pharmacists, and to induce appropriate policy. We carried out literature research. Taking several drugs together increases risk of drug interactions and adverse reactions. We suggest that pharmacists have the legal authority to monitor prescription for efficient drug management, pharmacovigilance system be efficiently operated, and medication education fee be provided to allow pharmacists give more time to the elderly.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.179-193
• /
• 1992

This paper attempts to explain why the prescribing-dispensing services are not seperated in Korea. The main reason why physicians and pharmacists do not compromise, even though the two parties support the seperation policy in public, is contended to be that both parties would lose their interests if the policy were implemented. Physicians' loss from giving up their vested rights to dispensing would be larger than their gain from an increase in the number of prescriptions. Pharmacists' loww from being forced not to to sell medicines without prescriptions would also be larger than their gain from prohibiting physicians from dispensing. The net ganier form the seperation policy would be the patients. Therefore, the seperation policy would not be implemented unless political pressure from general public surpasses that from physicians and pharmacists.

• Proceedings of the PSK Conference
• /
• 2002.10a
• /
• pp.430.1-430.1
• /
• 2002

The research was designed to identify the overall environment that the Korean pharmacists face in providing counselling to their patients. A nation-wide survey was conducted for both community pharmacists and hospital pharmacists. The results were used to highlight the environmental factors needed for better patient counselling. School curriculums in pharmacy school in Korea and the US were compared to identify future tasks in building more effective professional pharmacy education in Korea. Regulations in the US and Japan were also researched for this purpose. (omitted)

• Journal of dental hygiene science
• /
• v.11 no.5
• /
• pp.417-422
• /
• 2011

The aim of this study was to assess the association between recommendation of sugar-free oral medicines and the knowledge, attitude and awareness regarding oral health in Korean pharmacists. A total of 223 pharmacists were invited to participate, and the response rate was 67.7%(n=151). Chi-square test and Logistic regression models were conducted using SPSS 18.0K for Windows(Version 18.0, SPSS Inc, USA). Pharmacists with high scores oral health knowledge or awareness more have recommended of sugar-free oral medicines compared to pharmacists with low scores oral health attitude or awareness. We found that oral health attitude and awareness was significantly associated with recommendation of sugar-free oral medicines of pharmacists. Future research is required to develop oral health education program for the role of pharmacist as an oral health adviser.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.94-101
• /
• 2015

Background: In order to achieve the goals of community pharmacy practice, its legal, labour-related, and economic barriers need to be identified. This study examined pharmacists' perceptions of constraints on providing optimal pharmacy services in order to identify underlying factors and analyse the associations between barriers and pharmaceutical services in community pharmacies. Methods: A survey targeting pharmacy owners was conducted from May to June 2012 using a structured questionnaire including nine pharmaceutical service items. According to the service provision level, we classified pharmacists as inactive (fewer than 5 items among the listed 9 service items) and active providers (5 or more items). Principal component analysis was used to group significant factors for barriers into four thematic components. Associations between the participants' demographics and pharmacy characteristics and the services provided were explored by logistic regression analyses. Results: Participants were 402 pharmacists. Over 60% provided disease management services for hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidaemia. Variables that affected pharmaceutical services included the lack of separate areas for patient counselling (OR: 2.12, 95% CI: 1.18-3.80), and clinical knowledge and information-related barriers (OR: 0.59, 95% CI: 0.36-0.97). Conclusion: Strategies for improving clinical knowledge and providing expeditious information are necessary in order to improve community pharmacy services.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
• /
• v.35 no.3
• /
• pp.135-154
• /
• 2014

Purpose: There is an issue in applying various principles introduced in established Korean medical classics to "Pharmaceuticals Approval, Notification and Review" of "herbal medicinal preparations" and "new drugs from natural products" that are used for western forms of medical treatment. Thus, an analysis of the origin, purpose, and application of established Korean medical classics in the Korean Pharmaceutical Affairs Act is essential. Methods: We collected data regarding the origin, purpose, and application of established Korean medical classics in the Korean Pharmaceutical Affairs Act, and classified them by periodical change and subjects. Results: Established Korean medical classics are applied as follows: 1) as criteria for Korean medicine distributors' sales of mixed herbal drugs (Pharmaceutical Affairs Act; since 1953), 2) as official compendiums for pharmacists' preparation of Korean medicine (Ministry of Health and Welfare's authoritative interpretation; from early 1970s to 1993), 3) as standards for oriental pharmacists' quality measurement of preparations (notification of the Ministry of Health and Welfare; since 1995), 4) as criteria for "Pharmaceuticals Approval, Notification and Review" of herbal medicinal preparations and crude drug preparations (notifications regarding drug approval process by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety; since 1978), and 5) as standards for the quality of materials of health functional food (from 2004 to 2011). Conclusion: The application of Korean medical classics has been closely related with the change of the laws, regulations, and systems that are relevant to Korean medicine, and it seems to be more favorable for pharmacists than oriental pharmacists. Meanwhile, regulations that apply prescriptions that are recorded in Korean medical classics - dosage, indications, and preparation methods - as criteria for the approval of crude drug preparations for western medical treatment should be abolished.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.92-95
• /
• 2006

Medication counseling improves patients' compliance, which enhances the effectiveness of treatment and reduces the medical cost consequently. Since separation of dispensary from medical practice took place, most patients have had to go to pharmacy after receiving prescription from hospital. The importance of medication counseling in pharmacy thus has been emphasized. To study the present conditions of medication counseling from the pharmacists and the patients satisfaction with them, we conducted a survey with questionnaires. The subjects were 146 outpatients and 55 pharmacies located in Yeongdeungpo-gu. The research showed that 69.9% of the outpatients had received medication counseling and only 35.5% of them were satisfied with it. The main reason for their unsatisfaction was insufficiency of explanation. A number of patients(75.3%) were thinking that medication counseling from the pharmacists is necessary for appropriate administration and optimal efficacy of the medicine. Among 55 pharmacies involved in the research, 17 of them(30.9%) answered that they have been giving patients medication counseling, which were mostly verbally done. Only 8 of them(l4.5%) were providing medication information sheets for some specific drugs. The pharmacists referred to a few problems disturbing optimal medication counseling like these: 1) Lack of time, 2) insufficient information, 3) inappropriate counseling skills. To improve these problems, they hope to get more information about prescription and specific medicines from pharmacy in hospital. If hospital decides to hold the lectures on medication counseling, about 80% of the pharmacists tend to take part in them.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.50-59
• /
• 2008

Objective: The aim for this article was to evaluate and to clarify the current opinions of the registered pharmacists concerning their recognition and adoption rates about introducing the preceptorship into the clinical pharmacy internship and clerkship. Methods: A 25-question-questionnaire was developed and pilot tested. For 40 days of survey by both on-line and on site, 90 over 240 (37.5%) registered pharmacists responded and the data were analyzed with comparison to the groups working in community and hospital pharmacies. Results: The overall answers were affirmative and the respondents were very interested in the application of the clinical preceptorship to the pharmacy educational and to their clinical settings. Moreover, the qualification level and the implementation methods were proposed in detail. Conclusion: Although ninety pharmacists showed their views differently, most of the respondents regarded the preceptorship as an adequate training system for the pharmacy students as well as junior pharmacists at the time of initiation of the new 6-year pharmacy education system in Korea.