Therapeutic Outcome of Inhalation-support Team Collaboration with Hospital and Community Pharmacists

Abstract

The inhaler technique and medication adherence are highly important for the management of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but they are often inadequate due to highly variegated and complicated inhalation drug devices. Kyoto University Hospital established a collaborative inhalation support team which consisted of pulmonologists, hospital- and community-pharmacists to support outpatients taking inhalation drugs since December 2013. In this study, we evaluated clinical outcomes of the collaborative team services. After the implementation of services, the patients who were hospitalized urgently due to the exacerbation significantly decreased among patients with COPD, and the ratios of urgently hospitalized patients / total outpatients were 2.4％ (22 / 919) to 1.2％ (15 / 1,233) after one year, and to 1.0％ (14 / 1,446) after 4 years. On the other hand, the number of urgently hospitalized patients with asthma remained unchanged. This collaborative system by medical doctors, hospital- and community- pharmacists may contribute to the therapeutic outcomes of inhalation medicines.