Medication reviews led by community pharmacists in Switzerland: a qualitative survey to evaluate barriers and facilitators.

1) To evaluate the participation rate and identify the practical barriers to implementing a community pharmacist-led medication review service in francophone Switzerland and, 2) To assess the effectiveness of external support. A qualitative survey was undertaken to identify barriers to patient inclusion and medication review delivery in daily practice among all contactable independent pharmacists working in francophone Switzerland (n=78) who were members of a virtual chain (pharmacieplus), regardless of their participation in a simultaneous cross-sectional study. This study analyzed the dissemination of a medication review service including a prescription and drug utilization review with access to clinical data, a patient interview and a pharmaceutical report to the physicians. In addition, we observed an exploratory and external coaching for pharmacists that we launched seven months after the beginning of the cross-sectional study. Poor motivation on the part of pharmacists and difficulties communicating with physicians and patients were the primary obstacles identified. Lack of time and lack of self-confidence in administering the medication review process were the most commonly perceived practical barriers to the implementation of the new service. The main facilitators to overcome these issues may be well-planned workflow organization techniques, strengthened by an adequate remuneration scheme and a comprehensive and practice-based training course that includes skill-building in pharmacotherapy and communication. External support may partially compensate for a weak organizational framework. To facilitate the implementation of a medication review service, a strong local networking with physicians, an effective workflow management and a practice- and communications-focused training for pharmacists and their teams seem key elements required. External support can be useful to help some pharmacists improve their service management skills. Adequate remuneration seems necessary to encourage initial investments to provide such a service. Future research in this area may help improve the process and design of training programs, as well as the monitoring of implementation for each new pharmaceutical service

New high level application software for the control of the SPS-LEP beam transfer lines

New high level application software is being developed for the control of the SPS and LEP Transfer Lines. This paper briefly describes the model for the operation of these Transfer Lines, which is largely based on previous experience gained during the development and upgrades of the SPS and LEP control systems. The software system is then presented, followed by a description of the high level applications for the control room operators. Tools and methods used for the design and implementation of the system are mentioned

TCOs for nip thin film silicon solar cells

Substrate configuration allows for the deposition of thin film silicon (Si) solar cells on non-transparent substrates such as plastic sheets or metallic foils. In this work, we develop processes compatible with low Tg plastics. The amorphous Si (a-Si:H) and microcrystalline Si (µc-Si:H) films are deposited by plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition, at very high excitation frequencies (VHF-PECVD). We investigate the optical behaviour of single and triple junction devices prepared with different back and front contacts. The back contact consists either of a 2D periodic grid with moderate slope, or of low pressure CVD (LP-CVD) ZnO with random pyramids of various sizes. The front contacts are either a 70 nm thick, nominally flat ITO or a rough 2 µm thick LP-CVD ZnO. We observe that, for a-Si:H, the cell performance depends critically on the combination of thin flat or thick rough front TCOs and the back contact. Indeed, for a-Si:H, a thick LP-CVD ZnO front contact provides more light trapping on the 2D periodic substrate. Then, we investigate the influence of the thick and thin TCOs in conjunction with thick absorbers (µc-Si:H). Because of the different nature of the optical systems (thick against thin absorber layer), the antireflection effect of ITO becomes more effective and the structure with the flat TCO provides as much light trapping as the rough LP-CVD ZnO. Finally, the conformality of the layers is investigated and guidelines are given to understand the effectiveness of the light trapping in devices deposited on periodic grating

Asymmetric intermediate reflector for tandem micromorph thin film silicon solar cells

The micromorph solar cell (stack of amorphous and microcrystalline cells) concept is the key for achieving high efficiency stabilized thin film silicon solar cells. We introduce a device structure that allows a better control of the light in-coupling into the two subcell components. It is based on an asymmetric intermediate reflector, which increases the effective thickness of the a-Si:H by a factor of more than three. Hence, the a- Si:H thickness reduction diminishes the light induced degradation, and micromorph tandem cells with 11.2% initial and 9.8% stabilized efficiencies (1000 h, 50 °C, and 100 mW/cm2) are made on plastic substrates with Tg<180 °C

Proton-induced degradation of Thin-Film Microcrystalline Silicon Solar Cells

This paper investigates the stability of dilution series of pin and nip microcrystalline silicon solar cells under low-energy proton irradiation (E = 405 keV). Variation of electrical parameters, defect-related absorption and Urbach parameter are investigated as a function of irradiation and annealing steps. Highly microcrystalline cells show a relative efficiency loss of up to 80% after proton irradiation. The efficiency loss is observed not to be completely reversible under thermal annealing. Increase of defect-related absorption and Urbach parameter is also only partially reversible. The electrical parameters (Jsc, Voc, FF) show proton-induced reductions which increase with crystallinity for both pin and nip series; short-circuit current density suffers the largest variations with relative losses of up to 65%. Defect-related absorption is shown to be low for cells of medium crystallinity, before and after irradiation. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved