• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.167-174
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• 2013

Objective: The study evaluated the impact of pharmacist inventions with the implementation of pharmacistinvolved nutritional support service at neonate intensive care unit in a tertiary teaching hospital. Method: A retrospective and observational study was carried out. The total of 58 infants in neonate intensive care unit was enrolled between January 2011 and October 2012. The pharmacist-involved total parenteral nutritional program was initiated in June of 2012. During the program, pharmacist actively participated in the multidisciplinary round with performing the interventions from reviewing the amount of combined total parenteral nutrition and enteral fluid intakes, the amount of total calories, the glucose infusion rate, and the amounts of proteins per weight in kilogram. The outcome was compared with the results from the control group which reflected the prior period of the program initiation. Result: The number of days of regaining birth weight was significantly shorter (14.5 vs. 19 days, p=0.049) and the percentage of total calorie days with >90 kcal/kg/day was increased significantly (40 vs. 13%, p=0.008) in intervention group compared to the values in control group. In addition, the total mean daily caloric intakes ($84.78{\pm}13.8$ vs. $74.86{\pm}15.36$ kcal/kg/day, p=0.018) was significantly higher in intervention group than those results in control group. There were no significant differences in safety parameters between two groups related to nutritional services of necrotizing enterocolitis, intraventricular hemorrhage, proven sepsis, and also parenteral nutrition-induced hepatotoxicity. Conclusion: Pharmacist-involved total parenteral nutrition managed program was successfully implemented. The outcome showed the improved effectiveness of total parenteral nutrition with pharmacist interventions and no differences in adverse reactions. This could prove the positive effects of pharmacist involvement on nutritional therapy for neonate population.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.10
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• pp.875-884
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• 2020

Thailand has a rapidly growing pharmaceutical sector, which is the eighth largest in the Asia-Pacific region and one of the largest and most developed among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries. This study examines how to provide the most appropriate approach to enhance Thailand's pharmaceutical services to dispense medicine to end consumers. The main objective is to determine the most appropriate corporate image for Thai Pharmacy Retail Stores (PRSs) for entering the ASEAN market community. An exploratory mixed-method design characterized by qualitative and quantitative phases of data collection and analysis and the linking of data from these two separate data strands was adopted to conduct an in-depth interview with pharmacists and the owner of pharmacy retail stores as well as 405 respondents who had visited a pharmacy retail store and interacted with pharmacists during the previous year. The multiple linear regression (MLR) was applied to analyze the relative influences of perceived service quality and the cultural dimension on the corporate image. Findings reveal that the perceived service quality and cultural dimension contribute 50% towards the corporate image, and the perceived service quality had more effect than cultural dimension. This study mainly focuses on PRSs in Thailand, while the findings show other analyses concerning how to successfully create and promote an effective PRS image for ASEAN markets.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.507-513
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• 2008

The purpose of this study is to analyze the factors affecting financial performance of community pharmacies after the implementation of the new drug policy in Korea: separation of drug prescription and dispensing (SPD). The online survey questionnaires were sent to the active pharmacists of the total 20,633 community pharmacies in Korea and 1,147 pharmacists responded to the survey (the response rate was 5.5%). The questionnaire asked simple financial data in order to compare their financial performances before and after the policy. With the SPSS package (version 12.0), two levels of data analysis were used: 1) descriptive statistics to see the financial status of the pharmacies; and 2) multiple regression analysis to find the factors. {or A multiple regression method was used for the data analysis.} The finding illustrated that the average net benefit of the pharmacies was 4,870 thousand won in August 2006, and the major factors affecting the net benefit were the location of pharmacy (geographical proximity to medical institutions), number of prescriptions, drug management services for patients, chain pharmacy membership. The findings of this study suggest that service improvement for patients, revitalization of non-prescription drug sales, professional management will contribute to promote community based pharmacy business.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.28-40
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• 1998

Background : Many patients have been frequently complaining that they have to spend couples of hours in hospital on visiting outpatient clinic. Among several steps, two major time consuming steps were waiting to see a doctor and/or waiting at pharmacy to get medicine. Therefore not only to provide the proper guidance for medication or counseling on health affairs but also to make waiting time short is very important for the better hospital services. The aim of this study is to validate several time-saving processes to reduce waiting time at outpatient pharmacy and its efficacy. Methods : We surveyed the time interval actually taken to receive medicine after issuing prescription by doctors, and analyzed the data on the bases of relevant or possible causative factors. Then following processes were given to reduce waiting time and resurveyed and compared both data to validate efficacy of those processes : 1. No work-off on Monday and Tuesday 2. Work hour shift to start 30 minutes earlier 3. Changeable work shift between outpatient pharmacy and ward pharmacy according to work load 4. Use of pre-made medicines prescribed more frequently by certain doctors at certain time 5. Cooperation with doctors to use set prescriptions. Results : Before the process, mean waiting time at pharmacy was 29.2 minutes and most time consuming period was from noon to 1 PM, 3 to 4 PM, 1 to 2 PM in order of frequency. Only 37.7 % of patients could get the medicine within 20 minutes. Three times of surveys after process showed mean waiting time at pharmacy were 18.1 minutes, 19.0 minutes, and 17.6 minutes, respectively. And 72.7 %, 81.3%, and 82.2% of patients could get the medicine within 20 minutes. Conclusion : The mean waiting time was markedly reduced with above mentioned processes which applied intradepartmently event hough with little cooperation from other department. Consequently, the complaints of patients were decreased with increasing the satisfaction degree. In conclusion, those suggestions were recommanded to improve the degree of satisfaction of patients.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.67-75
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• 2010

Objectives : Recently, the number of elderly people has been rapidly increasing in Korea, and it led to increase demands of Korean traditional medical services. However, there is a lack of information on Korean traditional service utilization. Thus, this study was intended to identify Korean traditional service utilization patterns such as acupuncture, moxibustion and cupping, since Korean traditional services were specially used in treating chronic diseases for elderly people. It is important to understand health services utilization for quality improvement of healthcare systems. Methods:We used data of 'Survey in Daegu' in 2008 and analyzed characteristics of disease structure and utilization patterns of health care service of 1,097 cases of participated citizens. Results : The proportion of the elderly people (>50 age) in total participators is 52.4%. Male to female ratio is 1:1.65 and most common age group was between 50 and 59 years old. 84.2% of participators were admitted at oriental health care facilities. In addition, the results showed that female were more used the service than man. The most common treated disease is musculoskeletal disorders in both male and female. Conclusions : Acupuncture, moxa and cupping are widely used to treat chronic degenerative diseases such as musculoskeletal disorders at oriental health care facilities. Elders and female prefer to be admitted at oriental health care facilities.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.13-17
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• 2003

This study was carried out to compare the bioavailability of $Ceclex^{(R)}$ SR TAB (test drug, cefaclor 375 mg/Tablet) with that of Ceclor $MR^{(R)}$ SR IAB (reference drug) and to estimate the pharmacokinetic parameters of cefaclor in healthy Korean volunteers. The bioavailability was examined on 24 healthy volunteers who received a single dose (375 mg) of each drug in the fasting state in a randomized balanced 2-way crossover design. After dosing, blood samples were collected for a period of 7 hours. Plasma concentrations of cefaclor were determined using HPLC with UV detection. The pharmacokinetic parameters $(AUC_{0-7h},\;C_{max},\;T_{max},\;AUC_{inf},\;K_e,\;t_{1/2},\;V_d/F,\;and\;CL/F)$ were calculated with non-compartmental pharmacokinetic analysis. The ANOVA test was utilized for the statistical analysis of the $T_{max}$, log-transformed $AUC_{0-7h$}$, log-transformed $C_{max},\;t_{1/2},\;V_d/F$, and $CL/F$. The ratios of geometric means of $AUC_{0-7h}\;and\;C_{max}$ between test drug End reference drug were $95.67\%\;(8.55\;vs\;8.18{\mu}g{\cdot}hr/ml)\;and\;103.86\%\;(2.85\;vs\;2.96{\mu}g/ml)$, respectively. The $T_{max}$ of test drug and reference drug was $2.56\pm0.15\;and\;2.23\pm0.13\;hrs,\;respectively.\;The\;90\%$ confidence intervals of mean difference of logarithmic transformed $AUC_{0-7h}\;and\;C_{max}$ were log0.90-log1.04 and log0.91-log1.13, respectively. It shows that the bioavailability of test drug is equivalent with that of reference drug.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.1-9
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• 2018

Polypharmacy is increasing owing to an increase in the elderly population and multimorbidities associated with the increased risk of administration of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs). The negative effects of polypharmacy on various health conditions and aspects, such as fall, fracture, mortality, cognitive function, and dementia, have been reported. The management of excess and inappropriate polypharmacy through proper interventions and local or national guidelines has been highlighted. The purpose of polypharmacy management is to appropriately prescribe medicines that are essential to treat diseases in patients and to avoid inappropriate polypharmacy, such as interactive or duplicate medicines under prescription and PIMs for specific diseases. Community pharmacists in Australia, the EU, USA, and Japan are collaborating with prescribers to review medications to ensure that the patients can be prescribed appropriate medications. The service cost is reimbursed by public or private insurers. A study in the United States has shown that even with medication review costs, the overall medication cost has reduced. In Korea, various projects such as Drug Utilization Review service and safe use of medicines have been conducted; however, no national guidelines or management measures have been established. It is necessary to implement a national long-term plan on polypharmacy management. Furthermore, a phased implementation plan is required. Shortly, active medication review services and education programs for healthcare professionals with the support of the government should be considered in Korea with reference to other countries in order to raise awareness of seriousness and risks of inappropriate polypharmacy.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
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• v.58 no.2
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• pp.91-98
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• 2014

Pharmacists must be aware of veterinary drugs to prevent abuse and misuse of the drugs, and to ensure the safety of livestock under the veterinarian prescription system. In this study, the awareness of animal pharmacies was surveyed in order to find out the role of animal pharmacies and the necessity of veterinary drug education for pharmacists. Surveys were conducted by 187 animal owners and 115 community pharmacists. 80% of the animal owners had purchased drugs for their animals. 63% of respondents were not aware of the existence of animal pharmacies. The best selling drug class for animals was antiparasitic. The most common drug that respondents wanted to buy in animal pharmacies was also antiparasitic. About 80% of respondents answered affirmatively on the question of whether they would buy the drugs from animal pharmacies regardless of the location of the pharmacies. Most community pharmacists were aware of the existence of animal pharmacies. 70% of pharmacists had considered trading in veterinary drugs. 41% of respondents answered that they did not trade in them because they were not familiar with veterinary drugs. 80% of respondents answered that what they needed most was education in order to increase the number of animal pharmacies. Pharmacies for animal will expand the choice of animal owners, and enable pharmacists to improve their specialty as well as to diversify the pharmacy services. To achieve this, promotion of animal pharmacies and education about veterinary drugs for pharmacists would be needed in regular education system.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.193-201
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• 2019

Background and Objective: Since the introduction of hospital pharmacy residency programs in 1983, hospital pharmacists in South Korea have been expected to expand their roles. However, their services and the outcomes have not been fully understood. In this study, we conducted a systematic review of Korean hospital pharmacist-provided interventions with regard to intervention type, intervention consequences, and target patient groups. Methods: A literature search of the following databases was performed: Embase, PubMed, Medline, KoreaMed, RISS, KMbase, KISS, NDSL, and KISTI. The search words were "hospital pharmacist", "clinical pharmacist", and "Korea". Articles reporting clinical or economic outcome measures that resulted from hospital pharmacist interventions were considered. Numeric measures for the acceptance rate of pharmacist recommendations were subjected to meta-analysis. Results: Of the 1,683 articles searched, 44 met the inclusion selection criteria. Most articles were published after 2000 (81.8%) and focused on clinical outcomes. Economic outcomes had been published since 2011. The interventions were classified as patient education, multidisciplinary team work, medication assessment, and guideline development. The outcome measures were physicians' prescription changes, clinical outcomes, patient adherence, economic outcomes, and quality of life. The acceptance rate was 80.5% (p < 0.005). Conclusion: Studies on pharmacist interventions have increased and showed increased patient health benefits and reduced medical costs at Korean hospital sites. Because pharmacists' professional competency would be recognized if the economic outcomes of their work were confirmed and justified, studies on their clinical performance should also include their economic impact.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.125-135
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• 2022

This study aims to explore variables using machine learning and provide analysis techniques suitable for predicting pharmacy sales whether government statistical indicators built to create an industrial ecosystem based on data, network, and artificial intelligence affect pharmacy sales. Therefore, this study explored predictive variables and performance through machine learning techniques such as Random Forest, XGBoost, LightGBM, and CatBoost using analysis data from January 2016 to December 2021 for 28 government statistical indicators and pharmacies in the retail sector. As a result of the analysis, economic sentiment index, economic accompanying index circulation change, and consumer sentiment index, which are economic indicators, were found to be important variables affecting pharmacy sales. As a result of examining the indicators MAE, MSE, and RMSE for regression performance, random forests showed the best performance than XGBoost, LightGBM, and CatBoost. Therefore, this study presented variables and optimal machine learning techniques that affect pharmacy sales based on machine learning results, and proposed several implications and follow-up studies.