“Prime” pharmacy opportunity

NEW UTS research has found there is “a prime opportunity for community pharmacists to support and deliver patient self-management in an evidencebased, structured capacity”.

Supporting people to selfmanage their health and care can improve clinical outcomes, reduce the economic impact of chronic disease and contribute to global healthcare, according to pharmacy practice researcher Sarah Dineen-Griffin.

Writing in the International Pharmaceutical Federation’s (FIP) International Pharmacy Journal,

Dineen-Griffin was referencing her findings as she presented to the FIP Special Interest Group for Pharmacy Practice Research’s first international conference in Lisbon, Portugal, last year.

Dineen-Griffin defined selfmanaged support in two ways: as a portfolio of techniques and tools and as a transformation of the patient-caregiver relationship.

The study showed that patients and providers can “work together to develop tangible and realistic healthcare goals” while providers can help patients develop these goals and monitor their health.

“Such evaluations will be of value to practitioners, policymakers and researchers in terms of collecting clinical and economic outcome measures to generate a robust evidence base of pharmacists’ impact in this area,” she wrote.