Expanding pharmacist’s educational role using virtual and social media portals before and during COVID19 outbreak (original) (raw)
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Advocacy of Pharmacist Towards Concomitant Social Media: Meeting an Urge to Patients Need & Outcome
2017
In the modern era, technology has taken a radical avant-garde towards social media. It is presently being used as a stature household need by every mankind. The revolutionary of social media has brought a dynamic impact in networking health information between the professional and patient, irrespective of age group. This laid a “bleeding-heart” platform for pharmacist, escalating the utilization by improving the health outcomes and meeting the urge. There is a vague informative literature around this upcoming subject. To bridge this gap, the authors reconnoitre the positive potential areas concentrating on the use and applications of social media by pharmacist to improvise & reinvigorate determinants of health outcomes. The subject was extensively studied in five main modules. 1. Encapsulating the complete medical information 2. Innocuous usage of medicine 3. In perpetuity medication usage 4. Document based medicine & implementation guidelines & 5. Clinical inquisition. In each of t...
Pharmacist use of social media
International Journal of Pharmacy Practice, 2011
Introduction The rapid emergence and exploding usage of social media (also called Web 2.0) present pharmacists with new professional, ethical and time management challenges. Objectives To describe social media use among pharmacists in West Virginia, USA. Methods A survey was administered during the West Virginia Pharmacist Association 102nd Annual Convention held in October 2009. The meeting participants were pharmacists practising in the different regions of West Virginia. All conference attendees were eligible to participate. Results The survey was completed by all 50 pharmacists in attendance, yielding a response rate of 100%. Social media use was found to be common among West Virginia pharmacists, with the most frequently used applications including: YouTube (74%), Wikipedia (72%), Facebook (50%), and blogs (26%). However, there were some tools that pharmacists barely used such as Bebo, Hi5, Flickr and Friendster. Given the widespread use of Facebook by respondent pharmacists, it is noteworthy that they indicated the main purposes for using it were for chatting, uploading pictures and keeping touch with friends rather than for professional and educational purposes. Discussion Presently, pharmacists utilize social media primarily for personal purposes. As social media becomes more sophisticated and widely adopted in the healthcare arena, it is probable that pharmacists will also increasingly utilize it for professional and educational purposes.
Pharmacia
Lack of access to the patient medical record (90.6%) was the major barrier for the integration of pharmaceutical care into practice. The majority of participants (93.0%) encouraged creating a website that provides pharmaceutical care. Furthermore, 45.1% would pay for such a service if present. Moreover, the majority (89.8%) agreed that creating a comprehensive database for patients’ data will help in decreasing medical errors. Among the four aspects of pharmaceutical care (technical, psychosocial, communication and administrative) that were assessed for students and pharmacist’s, general weakness in all aspects was noticed. This study highlights that absence of proper documentation of patient medical information raises the risk of medical problems and is considered the most documented barrier for the integration of pharmaceutical care. This emphasizes the future role of telemedicine and the availability of a specialized website and database repository that stores patient’s informati...
International Journal of Clinical Practice
Background: In the telepharmacy model, the pharmacist can play a pivotal role in delivering pharmaceutical services for patients. However, evidence of pharmacists' impact on improving patient outcomes through disease outbreak through telepharmacy is sparse. Objectives: This study aims to examine pharmacists' attitudes towards clinical benefits and identify challenges regarding the use of telepharmacy during the COVID-19 pandemic in Jordan. Method: A cross-sectional survey design was used to recruit eligible participants from both hospital and community pharmacies. Results: A total of 364 pharmacists agreed to participate in the study. The majority of the participants (70.6%) expressed favourable attitudes towards telepharmacy to accurately capture and report signs and symptoms of COVID-19. Almost 91% agreed that patients can receive immediate medical feedback while using telepharmacy services. Pharmacists (87%) emphasised their role in the monitoring of physiological parameters when entered by patients using telepharmacy technology. However, more than half of the participants reported that lack of reimbursement and evidence-based studies might hinder the use of telemedicine technology to deliver remote clinical services. Conclusion: The need for implementing telepharmacy technology has been further boosted because of its noticeable benefits in promoting convenient healthcare services remotely in emergency situations.
Community pharmacists, Internet and social media: An empirical investigation
Background: Use of social media and Internet for health information sharing is expanding among patients, physicians, and other health care professionals. Research on professional use of social media by community pharmacists is limited. Objectives: 1) To determine the extent to which Texas (U.S. state) independent community pharmacists use text messaging, email, Facebook, Twitter, and/or other information technology for professional communication with patients and health care professionals and identify the perceptions of Texas independent community pharmacists toward such usage; 2) to determine the extent to which Texas independent community pharmacists develop and employ their pharmacy websites to provide drug information and patient care services. Methods: A 25-item survey with questions addressing the objectives of the study as well as basic demographic questions (gender, age, and type of pharmacy degree) was mailed to a random sample of 1196 independent community pharmacists in Texas in January 2012. Results: The study response rate was 23.7%, with 284 usable questionnaires returned. The majority of respondents reported that Internet access is available at their pharmacies (98% (278)), and 91% (258) are familiar with the term 'social media'. To communicate with health care professionals, 56% (n ¼ 160) of respondents use email, 34% (n ¼ 97) use text messages and 5% (n ¼ 14) use Facebook. To communicate with patients, 36% (n ¼ 102) of respondents use email, 30% (n ¼ 86) use text messages and 7% (n ¼ 19) use Facebook. The perceptions of pharmacists who communicate with patients using electronic tools about information related to drug therapy once a month or more frequently were more positive than those of pharmacists who never or hardly ever communicate with patients via electronic tools about drug therapy (P ! 0.05). Over 50% of independent pharmacists reported maintaining a pharmacy website. Conclusions: This study is the first U.S. statewide assessment of the use of electronic communication and social media for professional pharmacist's communications and perceptions toward the use of social media in patient-pharmacist communications among independent community pharmacists in Texas. Future Conflict of interest: No conflict of interest exists. The opinions, interpretations of results and conclusions presented here are those of the authors and are independent from the funding source.
Research in social & administrative pharmacy : RSAP, 2018
A number of barriers prevent community pharmacists (CPs) from impacting public health (PH) outcomes. Social media (SM) and mobile health apps (MH apps) may offer ways to help the public make positive health decisions. To evaluate CP perceptions of their role in PH and the use of SM and MH apps in this regard. This was a mixed method study using a cross-sectional survey and follow-up interviews. The survey covered: CPs role in PH; CP use of SM; CP use of MH apps; non-identifiable demographic information. Following ethical approval and piloting, responses were collected on paper and online. The study population was CPs in Greater London, UK (n = 2931). A minimum sample size of 340 was calculated (95% confidence interval/5% margin of error). To achieve this, 596 surveys were distributed. Responses (n = 257) were analysed using descriptive statistics. Twenty-five respondents were willing to take part in follow-up one-to-one interviews. Twenty interviews were completed as data saturation...
Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical and Clinical Research, 2020
The aim of this study is to assess the perception of patients and pharmacists in the United Arab Emirates about social media uses in healthcare delivery. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was distributed among patients and pharmacists residing in Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi. Their perception of social media uses in delivering health-care services was evaluated by analyzing their attitude toward the benefits and associated risks of social media. Results: The survey study had a total of 267 participants, including 150 patients and 117 pharmacists. Based on the results, 69.2% of the pharmacists agreed that social media, text message, or e-mail can be effectively used by them to improve patient communication. For patients, the study showed that the greatest percentage (77.3%, n=116) utilize both: Disease-related information and information on drugs. About 69.2% of pharmacists chose WhatsApp to be the most used platform, and 60.7% of patients prefer using Instagram as a health-care platform. Conclusion: The use of professional development tools for social networking is likely to continue to evolve. Integrating social media with the practice of pharmacy and patient care will have a positive impact on achieving optimal patient care.
Proceedings of the International Conference on Economics and Social Sciences
As the use of online platforms and digitalization is increasing, the use of social media by pharmacists and the adoption of online pharmacy has been a trend worldwide. To date, limited data is available on Lebanese pharmacists and their use of social media and online pharmacies as platforms to improve engagement with patients. This research aims to study the Lebanese pharmacists' perception of the use of social media platforms and online pharmacies. A quantitative study was conducted by distributing a survey to 250 pharmacists. The results showed that pharmacists are willing to use social media more than owning an online pharmacy, although both have a financial advantage and improve patients' satisfaction, where pharmacists questioned the misuse of online medications, the risk of marketing prescription-only products, and the existence of illegal pharmacies. Moreover, social media was perceived to improve the communication with patients and provide the necessary medical knowledge.
2009
In this paper we aim to develop a patient centered perspective that puts at the centre of our focus patient practices and their appropriation of medical information, prescribed use of drugs and of health-care technology. Within this frame, we will initially discuss evidence from a qualitative case study on the role of community pharmacists in patients dealing with their problems. In line with the 2.0 revolution, we then suggest a technological architecture based on patient generated content and their health social ...
International Journal of Pharmacy Practice, 2018
Objectives Investigating public perceptions of community pharmacists (CP) in public health and their use of social media (SM) and mobile health applications (MH apps) in that regard. Methods Two surveys were created. One sought public perceptions of SM and the other of MH apps for health advice. Both included a section on perceptions of the role of CPs in public health. A convenience sampling strategy, based on proximity, was used.The study population was the public (n = 8 500 000) living in Greater London. The general public were recruited face-to-face in public spaces. A minimum sample (95% confidence interval/5% margin of error) of 385 was needed. Ethical approval was obtained from the university ethics committee. Responses were analysed in SPSS. Key findings About 820/1800 (45.6%) completed one/both surveys. Respondents seek health advice primarily from GPs, followed by digital mediums and then CPs. Under 35s use digital mediums more frequently (P = 0.039). Those who had used SM...