Healthcare professionals' perspectives on a mental health educational campaign for the public

Objective: To explore barriers and facilitators in implementing an educational campaign in mental health for the public in Qatar. Design: Qualitative study. Setting: Healthcare facilities across Qatar were used as the setting. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 35 healthcare providers from a variety of professions, including physicians, pharmacists, nurses, dietitians, psychologists and administrators. Results: Findings indicate that these healthcare providers support the concept of public mental health education but feel that several factors need to be considered before any educational campaign is undertaken. A public mental health education campaign should target improving the public's mental health literacy as well as describing appropriate pathways to mental health care. Health care providers believe such educational campaigns should be started in schools so that mental health awareness can have a positive influence from a young age. The social media were viewed as a suitable platform to deliver positive messages relating to mental health to the public. Any educational campaign in mental health should consider the cultural context with which it is being delivered. In conclusion, healthcare providers appeared to have similar views on the importance of public mental health education but differed in their opinions of the challenges faced. Conclusion: Consideration of the message intended and how it is delivered should be addressed as part of a successful public mental health educational campaign.This report was made possible by the Young Scientists Research Experience Program (JSREP) grant # JSREP 06-005-3-002 from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar foundation).Scopu

Pharmacist-led educational interventions provided to healthcare providers to reduce medication errors: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Medication errors are avoidable events that can occur at any stage of the medication use process. They are widespread in healthcare systems and are linked to an increased risk of morbidity and mortality. Several strategies have been studied to reduce their occurrence including different types of pharmacy-based interventions. One of the main pharmacist-led interventions is educational programs, which seem to have promising benefits. To describe and compare various pharmacist-led educational interventions delivered to healthcare providers and to evaluate their impact qualitatively and quantitatively on medication error rates. A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted through searching Cochrane Library, EBSCO, EMBASE, Medline and Google Scholar from inception to June 2020. Only interventional studies that reported medication error rate change after the intervention were included. Two independent authors worked through the data extraction and quality assessment using Crowe Critical Appraisal Tool (CCAT). Summary odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using a random-effects model for rates of medication errors. Research protocol is available in The International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) under the registration number CRD42019116465. Twelve studies involving 115058 participants were included. The two main recipients of the educational interventions were nurses and resident physicians. Educational programs involved lectures, posters, practical teaching sessions, audit and feedback method and flash cards of high-risk abbreviations. All studies included educational sessions as part of their program, either alone or in combination with other approaches, and most studies used errors encountered before implementing the intervention to inform the content of these sessions. Educational programs led by a pharmacist were associated with significant reductions in the overall rate of medication errors occurrence (OR, 0.38; 95% CI, 0.22 to 0.65). Pharmacist-led educational interventions directed to healthcare providers are effective at reducing medication error rates. This review supports the implementation of pharmacist-led educational intervention aimed at reducing medication error

The use of a modified Delphi technique to develop a critical appraisal tool for clinical pharmacokinetic studies.

Critical appraisal aids in assessing the quality of scientific literature, which is central to the practice of evidence-based medicine. Several tools and guidelines are available for critiquing and assessing the quality of specific study types. However, limited guidance exists for critical appraisal of clinical pharmacokinetic studies. We aimed to achieve experts' consensus regarding the quality markers for clinical pharmacokinetic studies in an attempt to develop a critical appraisal tool. Quality markers related to clinical pharmacokinetic studies, were derived from the published literature and categorized according to manuscript reporting domains (abstract, introduction/background, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion). Questions that aid in appraising pharmacokinetic studies were formulated from these quality markers. Experts were involved in a modified Delphi process to achieve a consensus regarding the formulated questions. The proposed tool was pilot tested on 30 recently published clinical pharmacokinetic studies. Inter-observer agreement was measured to determine the reliability of the included items. Twenty-five experts consented to participate. Three rounds of a modified Delphi survey were required to generate a consensus for a 21-item tool aimed at appraising the quality of clinical pharmacokinetic studies. When applied to 30 recently published clinical pharmacokinetic studies, most items scored fair to moderate levels of agreement (61.90-95.24%). The clinical pharmacokinetic critical appraisal tool (CACPK) developed in this study consisted of 21 items aimed at helping an end-user to determine the quality of a pharmacokinetic study. Further studies are warranted to reaffirm the validity and reliability of the CACPK tool.Open Access funding provided by the Qatar National Library

The Therapeutic Effects of Camel Milk: A Systematic Review of Animal and Human Trials

The clinical effectiveness and value of camel milk as a therapeutic agent is currently unclear. MEDLINE (1946 to March 2016), EMBASE (1974 to March 2016), and Google Scholar were searched using the following terms: milk, bodily secretions, camels, camelus, camelini, camelidae, dromedary, bactrian camel, body fluid, and bodily secretions. Articles identified were reviewed if the study was investigating the use of camel milk for the potential treatment of diseases affecting humans. Of 430 studies, 24 were included after assessment. Identified studies highlighted treatment with camel milk of diseases, including diabetes, autism, cancer, various infections, heavy metal toxicity, colitis, and alcohol-induced toxicity. Although most studies using both the human and animal model do show a clinical benefit with an intervention and camel milk, limitations of these studies must be taken into consideration before widespread use. Based on the evidence, camel milk should not replace standard therapies for any indication in humans.Scopu

Impact of pharmacist interventions on medication errors in hospitalized pediatric patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis

© 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Background Medication errors are avoidable events that may occur at any stage of the medication use process. Implementing a clinical pharmacist is one strategy that is believed to reduce the number of medication errors. Pediatric patients, who are more vulnerable to medication errors due to several contributing factors, may benefit from the interventions of a pharmacist. Aim of the review To qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate the impact of clinical pharmacist interventions on medication error rates for hospitalized pediatric patients. Methods PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Controlled Trials Register and Google Scholar search engines were searched from database inception to February 2020. Study selection, data extraction and quality assessment was conducted by two independent reviewers. Observational and interventional studies were included. Data extraction was done manually and the Crowe Critical Appraisal Tool was used to critically appraise eligible articles. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using a random-effects model for rates of medication errors. Results 19 studies were systematically reviewed and 6 studies (29,291 patients) were included in the meta-analysis. Pharmacist interventions involved delivering educational sessions, reviewing prescriptions, attending rounds and implementing a unit-based clinical pharmacist. The systematic review indicated that the most common trigger for pharmacist interventions was inappropriate dosing. Pharmacist involvement was associated with significant reductions in the overall rate of medication errors occurrence (OR 0.27; 95% CI 0.15 to 0.49). Conclusion Pharmacist interventions are effective for reducing medication error rates in hospitalized pediatric patients

The use of a modified Delphi technique to develop a critical appraisal tool for clinical pharmacokinetic studies

Background Critical appraisal aids in assessing the quality of scientific literature, which is central to the practice of evidence-based medicine. Several tools and guidelines are available for critiquing and assessing the quality of specific study types. However, limited guidance exists for critical appraisal of clinical pharmacokinetic studies. Aim We aimed to achieve experts’ consensus regarding the quality markers for clinical pharmacokinetic studies in an attempt to develop a critical appraisal tool. Method Quality markers related to clinical pharmacokinetic studies, were derived from the published literature and categorized according to manuscript reporting domains (abstract, introduction/background, methodology, results, discussion, and conclusion). Questions that aid in appraising pharmacokinetic studies were formulated from these quality markers. Experts were involved in a modified Delphi process to achieve a consensus regarding the formulated questions. The proposed tool was pilot tested on 30 recently published clinical pharmacokinetic studies. Inter-observer agreement was measured to determine the reliability of the included items. Results Twenty-five experts consented to participate. Three rounds of a modified Delphi survey were required to generate a consensus for a 21-item tool aimed at appraising the quality of clinical pharmacokinetic studies. When applied to 30 recently published clinical pharmacokinetic studies, most items scored fair to moderate levels of agreement (61.90–95.24%). Conclusion The clinical pharmacokinetic critical appraisal tool (CACPK) developed in this study consisted of 21 items aimed at helping an end-user to determine the quality of a pharmacokinetic study. Further studies are warranted to reaffirm the validity and reliability of the CACPK tool.Other Information Published in: International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0See article on publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11096-022-01390-y</p