Study on the Significance of Pharmaceutical Care for the Rational Use of Drugs. (Part1) Usefulness of Drug Monitoring on Safety and Effectiveness of Drug Therapy

To raise a level of safety and to enhance the effectiveness of complicated drug therapy, various drug monitoring programs have been implemented in these days. In the present study, we examined whether pharmaceutical care plans proposed by pharmacists contributed to drug therapy. The number of pharmaceutical proposals from pharmacists, which were adopted and put into poactice in the clinical stages, has increased annually and totaled 1,014 cases in the past four years. The number of proposals related to cancer chemotherapy increased remarkably. Moreover, most of the cancer-related proposals conserned drug dosage, suggesting that the pharmaceutical care by pharmacists may contribute to the safety management of drugs in drug therapy. Additionally, in the other clinical cases than cancer chemotherapy cases, there was an increase in the number of proposals based on patient's conditions and clinical examination data, which suggests frequent participation of pharmacists in drug therapy. Furthermore, it was found that 62.6% of the all pharmaceutical proposals were made by wards-resident pharmacists. This suggests that an increase in the numbrt of wards-resident pharmacists will contribute to more effective and safer drug therapy in the future.