Influences on antibiotic prescribing by dentists: insights from a pilot study

Communication presented at the 43rd ESCP Symposium on Clinical Pharmacy – Patient Safety : Bridging the Gaps. Copenhagem, 22nd-24th October 2014

Intravenous versus subcutaneous Trastuzumab in the treatment of breast cancer

Poster presented at the 44th ESCP Symposium on Clinical Pharmacy. Lisbon, 28-30 October 201

A Practical Guide on Behaviour Change Support for Self-Managing Chronic Disease

This open access book is a valuable resource for students in health and other professions and practicing professionals interested in supporting effective change in self-management behaviors in chronic disease, such as medication taking, physical activity and healthy eating. Developed under the auspices of the Train4Health project, funded by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union, the book contains six chapters written by international contributors from different disciplines. Chapter one introduces the competencies necessary for delivering effective behavior change support, based on an established program of work, and related learning outcomes. The four following chapters describe how these competencies can be acquired, focusing on concepts and theories, assessing self-management behaviors, implementing change strategies and person-centered communication, using a practical approach. The last chapter points out supplementary learning resources, developed as part of the Train4Health project.publishersversionpublishe

Alcohol-antibacterial drug interactions: comparison of three drug compendia

Poster presented at the 44th ESCP Symposium on Clinical Pharmacy. Lisbon, 28-30 October 201

Prescrição de Antibióticos em Medicina Dentária: estudo piloto

Comunicação apresentada no 2nd IPLeiria Internacional Health Congress: Challenges & Innovation in Health. Leiria, 9-10 Maio 2014Resumo disponível na Revista de Saúde Pública. Maio 2014;48(nº especial):168 (publicado em acesso aberto)http://www.rsp.fsp.usp.br/mensagem/pub/bemvindo.php?tipo=0http://www.health.ipleiria.pt/?page_id=1409&lang=e

An exploratory study on teams’ performance, client-reported outcomes and satisfaction

Background: Community pharmacy teams (CPTs) have an established role in assisting self-medication, contributing to the safe and effective use of non-prescription medicines. Objective: The study aimed to describe CPTs’ performance in self-medication consultation, client-reported outcomes, and satisfaction. A secondary purpose was to develop an explanatory model for better understanding clients’ satisfaction with this service. Methods: Descriptive, cross-sectional exploratory study. Data were collected in a purposive sample of pharmacy clients recruited in six community pharmacies in Portugal. CPTs adopted a structured approach to self-medication consultations, encompassing 11 quality criteria (five for case evaluation and six for counselling). An evaluation score, a counselling score and an overall quality score were estimated. Client-reported outcomes and satisfaction were ascertained via a follow-up telephone interview. Besides descriptive statistics, the association with several independent variables on the clients’ overall satisfaction was explored, using linear regression. Results: Product-based dispensing was more frequent for lower educated clients. Reported compliance with the criteria by CPTs was overall high (93.95% of maximum compliance), mostly missing the ‘other medication’ questioning. Most clients (93%) reported improvement after the consultation. Clients’ satisfaction score was 4.70 out of 5. The variables that seem to better explain clients’ overall satisfaction are pharmacy loyalty, the evaluation score, and the female gender. Conclusions: Clients’ reported outcomes were favourable, as well as satisfaction with the service. Clients’ satisfaction appears to be determined by consultation quality (evaluation score), suggesting the advancement of the pharmacists’ clinical role. A larger study is warranted to confirm these findings.publishersversionpublishe

A reflection on self-medication and non-prescription medicines in Portugal

Em Portugal, o enquadramento oficial da automedicação está restrito ao uso de medicamentos não sujeitos a receita médica (MNSRM) em transtornos menores, e no geral transitórios, embora haja uma tendência internacional para estender a automedicação a problemas crónicos. Atualmente, Portugal classifica como sujeitos a receita médica medicamentos que não necessitam de prescrição noutros países com idêntico nível de desenvolvimento humano (Índice de Desenvolvimento Humano das Nações Unidas). A experiência de outros países desenvolvidos pode ser útil para a discussão sobre oportunidades de alargamento do arsenal de MNSRM em Portugal. A literatura científica sugere que a existência de uma categoria de MNSRM de dispensa exclusiva em farmácia, recentemente introduzida em Portugal, contribui para o aumento deste arsenal. No global, verificou-se uma tendência de crescimento no mercado de MNSRM entre 2005 e 2013. Vários fatores podem explicar esta tendência, incluindo a existência de novos locais de venda de MNSRM e algumas reclassificações de sujeito para não sujeito a receita médica. Em consonância com dados internacionais, estudos realizados em Portugal indicam que a automedicação é um fenómeno comum. A análise da evolução da prevalência deste fenómeno ao longo do tempo não é fácil, dada a escassez de estudos longitudinais. A evidência nacional sugere que os consumidores atribuem ao farmacêutico um papel de destaque no apoio à automedicação. Ao longo do trabalho sugerem-se várias áreas para investigação futura.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Virtual humans playing the role of patients in self‐medication consultations : perspectives of undergraduate pharmacy students

Poster presented at the GRAPP 2016 - 11th International Conference on Computer Graphics Theory and Application. 27-29 February 2016, RomeN/

Development of a European competency framework for health and other professionals to support behaviour change in persons self-managing chronic disease

Funding: This project has received funding from the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union under the grant agreement no. 2019–1-PT01-KA203– 061389. The Funder had no role in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript. The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.Background: Healthcare and other professionals are expected to support behaviour change in people living with chronic disease. However, effective behaviour change interventions are largely absent in routine encounters. The Train4Health project, a European strategic partnership for higher education, sought to address this problem. The primary aim of this study, which is part of an early work package, was to develop an interprofessional competency framework for health and other professions to support behaviour change for the self-management of chronic disease at a European level. A secondary aim was to derive a set of behaviour change techniques (BCTs) from an established taxonomy to link with framework competencies. Methods: The study comprised two interlinked parts. Part 1 involved a two-round e-Delphi study with an interprofessional panel of 48 experts across 12 European countries to develop the behaviour change competency framework. Preparatory work included drafting a list of competency statements based on seven existing frameworks. Part 2 involved an expert panel of six behavioural psychologists deriving a set of BCTs to link with framework competencies. Their feedback was based on preparatory work, which focused on seven high priority chronic diseases for self-management, identified through European projects on self-management and identifying five relevant target behaviours from key clinical guidelines. A literature search yielded 29 effective BCTs for the target behaviours in the selected chronic diseases. Results: Twenty-seven competency statements, were presented in Round 1 to the Delphi panel. Consensus was achieved for all statements. Based on comments, two statements were removed, one was added, and 14 were modified. All 15 statements subjected to Round 2 were consensus-approved, yielding a total of 12 foundational competencies for behaviour change in self-management of chronic disease and 14 behaviour change competencies. Four behaviour change competencies related to BCTs. Behavioural psychologists’ feedback led to a core set of 21 BCTs deemed applicable to the five target behaviours across the seven chronic diseases. Conclusions: A behaviour change competency framework comprising 26 statements for European health and other professionals to support self-management of chronic disease was developed, linked with a core set of 21 BCTs from an established taxonomy.publishersversionpublishe

Ambiente virtual para treino de competências de comunicação na área da saúde : o caso do atendimento em farmácia para automedicação

Este artigo descreve um protótipo de Realidade Virtual destinado ao treino de competências técnicas e de comunicação dos estudantes de Ciências Farmacêuticas. Numa situação simulada, um humano virtual desempenha o papel de um paciente/doente que requer o apoio de um profissional numa farmácia, comunicando com este através de mensagens de texto. O estudante comunica com este personagem virtual escolhendo opções na interface da aplicação. Esta interface contém para cada situação: i) um conjunto de questões a colocar ao paciente, destinadas a esclarecer a sua situação de saúde, ou em alternativa, ii) um conjunto de respostas ou recomendações para os problemas dos pacientes, em última análise o medicamento e a posologia recomendados. Estes conjuntos contêm opções corretas e incorretas, tendo o estudante o propósito de alcançar o melhor desempenho possível, escolhendo sempre as corretas. A simulação decorre num cenário pré-gravado de uma farmácia real, no qual o paciente virtual está inserido. Este personagem virtual é capaz de exibir expressões faciais e tem movimentos naturais do corpo obtidos recorrendo à técnica de captura de movimentos.This paper describes a Virtual Reality prototype for technical and communication skills training of Pharmaceutical Sciences students. In a simulated situation, a virtual human plays the role of a patient requiring the assistance of a professional in a pharmacy, communicating via textual messages. The student communicates with this virtual character by choosing options in the interface of the application. This interface contains for each Revista de Ciências da Computação, 2014, nº9 46 situation: i) a set of questions to pose to the patient to clarify his health condition, or alternatively, ii) a set of answers or recommendations to the patients' problem. These sets contain right and wrong options and the goal of the student is to attain the best performance by choosing always the right options. The simulation takes place in a pre-recorded scenario of a real pharmacy where the virtual patient was inserted. This virtual character is capable of exhibiting facial expressions and has natural body movements obtained by motion capture