The Unsung Role of the Pharmacist in Patient Health was the title of a recent article in the New York Times. I happen to like the title!
The reason we have started offering one on one services is illustrated very well by the author.
Although it may seem paradoxical, pharmacists are often charged with figuring out how to help patients remove unecessary medications. This is challenging though as just discontinuing a medication without a solution for the condition it is treating doesn’t tend to go over well.
A study was cited with the following findings:
Among older adults in Quebec, a pharmacist-led educational intervention compared with usual care resulted in greater discontinuation of prescriptions for inappropriate medication after 6 months.
Effect of a Pharmacist-Led Educational Intervention on Inappropriate Medication Prescriptions in Older AdultsThe D-PRESCRIBE Randomized Clinical Trial
Philippe Martin, PhD 1
This enhanced level of care with an educational component is what we are developing now, on this site. Starting with the blog and expanding whitepapers on topics where we can offer additional sources interventions. Topics so far are, Prostate Health, Brain Inflammation, and Avoiding Insulin in Type 2 Diabetes. These documents contain succinct information on foundational ways to get at the root causes of health conditions using diet, supplements, lifestyle interventions, and even innovative solutions from our compounding lab. A conversation can then be started to between patient, doctor, and pharmacist to chart a course that leads to improved health and the subsequent ability to reduce medications. And that is precisely what they found:
Dr. Tannenbaum, author of the recent JAMA study, thought that communication was essential to her project’s results: “We first asked primary care providers what information they needed to safely deprescribe patients’ medications,” she said. “Based on the physicians’ answers, we provided pharmacists with a template on how best to communicate the evidence about deprescribing to physicians. When pharmacists equipped patients with the same information, applied specifically to medications the patient had been taking for a while, everyone was on board and keen to initiate a conversation.”
We are
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