Background: Clinical pharmacists have important roles in implementing scientifically valid knowledge and advice on safe, reasonable use of pharmaceuticals. Clinical pharmacy services were introduced and evaluated in oncology clinic in a tertiary university hospital.
Methods: A prospective interventional study was conducted from November 2017 to March 2018. Drug-related problems were classified using the Pharmaceutical Care Network Europe drug-related problem classification tool v8.01. The main outcome measure is the proposed interventions aimed at identification of the drug-related problems, the role of the pharmacists in the resolution, and the rate of acceptance of these recommendations by physicians.
Results: A total of 102 patients were included in the study, who were treated with at least two cycles of any cancer type and stage. A total of 55 (53.9%) patients had 251 drug-related problems. Drug-related problems mainly involved antihypertensive (31.6%), antidiabetic (17.8%), and herbal agents (31.6%). Treatment effectiveness was the major type of drug-related problems (50.2%) followed by treatment safety (29.1%). A total of 211 (100%) interventions were accepted and regarded as clinically relevant. Prescriber informed only were the most common types of intervention at the prescriber level. Eighty-six point four percent identified drug-related problems were solved, 9.8% of the problems were partially solved, 2.3% problems were unsolved.
Conclusion: Clinical pharmacy services may have optimized therapy effectiveness, prevent adverse effects and unclear/compliant problems. The pharmacist interventions were highly acknowledged by oncologists and patients; this may indicate the presence of a great convenience and need to implement Clinical pharmacy services in alternative hospitals in Northern Cyprus.
Keywords: Oncology pharmacy; chemotherapy; clinical pharmacy services; drug-related problems.