Objective: Japanese pharmaceutical industries are being affected by various changes taking place around them such as the launching of new drugs which has brand-new mechanisms of action and/or are developed using the latest innovative technology.  Due to these innovations, the roles and responsibilities of Consumer Consultation Services functions have become increasingly important from the perspective of enhancing the proper use of drugs.  In addition, learning from the Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster and subsequent Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident in March 2011, pharmaceutical companies have realized how Consumer Consultation Services functions should be continued under such disastrous situations.  Subsequently, Consumer Consultation Services Study Committee in Japan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (JPMA) has conducted a survey to its member companies to understand how they have adopted to such changes.
Design: The survey was conducted from October 1st to 24th in 2012 at 68 member companies of JPMA.  The questionnaires consisted of the followings;
  1. The current situation in Consumer Consultation Services
  2. Contents of training programs for those who work in Consumer Consultation Services
  3. Ideal Consumer Consultation Services functions
Results: Number of respondents was 68 companies.
  1. The number of people who worked in the area of Consumer Consultation Services was 996.  Of those, 769 were full time employees while 227 were contract employees.  The number of inquiries related to prescription drugs was 160,394.  This was +81.6% higher compared to the result from the previous survey which was conducted in 2006.
  2. The result of survey showed that average time for learning medical/scientific knowledge and related information such as laws and regulations was 6.1 h per month per person.  On the other hand, average time for acquiring skills for handling phone calls which should be fundamental for Consumer Consultation Services function was 2.6 h per month per person.
  3. Of 68 companies, 65 (95.6%) have already prepared their own written Standard Operating Procedures for Consumer Consultation Services.  Of 68 companies, 50 (74.0%) have reported to their Board of Directors the information received from external customers.  On the other hand, only 12 companies out of 68 (17.6%) have developed a Business Continuity System for supporting the Consumer Consultation Services functions to continue its business in a serious situation such as huge disasters.
Conclusion: The result of the survey indicated that the number of inquiries which were received by Consumer Consultation Services has been increasing year by year.  This also shows that we should recognize even more the importance of this function.  It would be essential for Consumer Consultation Services to recognize the value of the information which are received from the external customers, and analyze them to find issues.  It is important to establish a capable organization to contribute to the medical practices in terms of enhancement of appropriate treatment with our drugs.

抄録全体を表示

Objective: It is important to ensure the quality of preparation in hospital pharmacies.  Therefore, we evaluated the quantitative method of preparation and the stability of allopurinol for external use in a new dosage form.
Methods: The new dosage form utilized two kinds of ointment, white petrolatum and hirudoid soft ointment, and liquid.  Allopurinol was extracted from these preparations by the liquid-liquid partition method, and assayed by high performance liquid chromatography.  A stability test was conducted for six months in the case of the ointments and one month in the case of the liquid.
Results: Good linearity was obtained, in the range of 30˜670 μg/mL (r²≥0.999).  The recovery of allopurinol added to the two kinds of ointment was 97.7-102.0%, and the relative standard deviation was less than 3.0%.  It was observed that the quantity remained relatively constant for one month, and increased after three months.
Conclusion: A quantitative method for the preparation of allopurinol in ointment, using white petrolatum and hirudoid soft ointment, was evaluated.  The results confirmed that allopurinol was stable for one month in ointment and liquid.

抄録全体を表示

Objective: We aimed to develop software that could provide drug information off-line using a smart device.  Therefore, FileMaker Go® was examined and evaluated as a mobile drug information application.
Methods: A mobile drug information database (Mobile DI-DB) application was created using FileMaker Go®.  The function, search performance, and characteristics of Mobile DI-DB were evaluated.  In addition, question and answer time with Mobile DI-DB was compared with that existing drug information database (existing DI-DB) of the Soka Municipal Hospital.
Results: Mobile DI-DB can be viewed on an iPad®and iPhone®.  The software is full-text searchable, has good search performance, and is characterized by a small file size.  Furthermore, question and answer times were found to be shorter about 1/3 with Mobile DI-DB than with existing DI-DB.
Conclusion: A mobile drug information database prepared with Filemaker Go® can now be viewed on a smart device, making drug information easier to access than ever before.  Although this study focused on increasing operational efficiency of pharmacists through the use of the Mobile DI-DB application, we believe that this application can benefit other users too.

抄録全体を表示

Objective: Pharmacotherapy for patients with breast cancer is now administered in an ambulatory setting, and we assume that patients would benefit if clinical pharmacists perform all stages of pharmacological intervention up to prescription in an ambulatory setting as well, especially for medicines requiring chronic administration and those that affect the patient’s life, such as hormonal therapy.  A thorough understanding of guidelines and the clinical reports is paramount for effective pharmacological intervention.  Since ambulatory care clinical pharmacists are involved in the treatment of a large number of patients, effective utilization of evidence outlined in guidelines and clinical reports is difficult.  Therefore, we developed a system for utilizing evidence as outlined in guidelines and clinical reports with a focus on hormonal therapy for patients with breast cancer.
Methods: A database based on the 2013 version of the clinical practice guidelines for breast cancer and clinical reports was constructed using Microsoft® Access 2010.
Result: Clicking on a guideline algorithm according to the disease stage of the patient results in a clinical question being displayed, and the ambulatory care clinical pharmacist is immediately able to determine suitable medications based on clinical reports that are run through the database.
Conclusion: With the use of this database, which includes information required for pharmacological intervention, ambulatory care clinical pharmacists could care for a large number of patients.

抄録全体を表示

Objective: Nowadays, patient-centered medical care is essential.  It is very important to use layman’s terms that patients can understand. However, most medical staff tend to use difficult medical terms.  The purpose of this study was to investigate the amount of difficult medical terms in briefing papers given to patients.
Methods: We conducted a questionnaire survey on September 21, 2012 of 246 non-medical professionals in order to identify difficult medical terms used in a manual for handling disorders due to adverse drug reactions.
Result: It was found that there were 387 terms of those in the manual (n=980) that non-medical professionals had never seen or heard before (39.5%).  There were 128 terms for which they could not correctly replace Japanese kana (phonetic) characters with kanji (pictorial) characters (13.1%).
Conclusion: The results indicate that the manual has many terms that are difficult for non-medical professionals to understand.  This may hinder patients’ comprehension.  These difficult medical terms need to be replaced with layman’s terms.

抄録全体を表示

The creation of the National Health Insurance program has greatly contributed to giving Japan the world’s highest level of life expectancy.  However, the cost of medical care in Japan has increased as a result of an aging society.  In response to this reality, the Japanese government initiated a campaign to promote the use of generic drugs (GEs).  In order to clarify some of the trends that contribute to different clinical medicine department usages of GEs, we carried out a survey of 400 pharmacies.  The survey data was analyzed using linear regression analysis.  Analysis of linear equations derived “utilization” that indicated ease of use of GEs, and a “saturation acceptable value (maximum allowed)” that indicated usage of GEs.  The breakdown for different clinical medicine department usages of GEs was determined as the following: psychosomatic medicine or psychiatry was 11±0.13%, internal medicine was 29±0.18%, orthopedics was 18±0.14%, ophthalmology or otolaryngology was 15±0.14%, other departments was 17±0.15%.  Furthermore, the highest utilization derived by linear regression analysis was orthopedics.  The highest acceptable saturation value was for psychosomatic medicine or psychiatry, while the lowest acceptable saturation value was orthopedics.  The results of the study confirm the importance of establishing evaluation methods for GE usage, and that linear regression analysis is a powerful tool for revealing trends in GE usage among different departments.  Additionally, the study suggests that determining GE spread measures is valuable, since they can serve as an aid to future pharmaceutical administration consideration.

抄録全体を表示

Objective: This study aimed to enhance Drug Information Practice Experiences (DIPE) in Japan by comparing DIPEs at Tohoku University Hospital (TUH) with Nova Southeastern University (NSU) in the United States, and propose an advanced model of drug information (DI) education in Japan.
Methods: We performed the following: (i) comparison of both DIPEs based on Model Core Curriculum (MCC) content; (ii) identification of practices which were not part of NSU or TUH DIPE; (iii) comparison of students’ DIPE performance based on MCC: (A) students’ performance without the preceptors and their post-performance approval, (A’) students’ performance without the preceptors and their pre-performance approval, and (B) students’ performance under direct preceptor supervision; (iv) highlighting differences between TUH and NSU DIPEs; and (v) proposing an advanced model of DI education in Japan.
Results: (i) The NSU DIPE is similar to the MCC.  An example difference between NSU and TUH learning strategies was that NSU students responded to the inquiries made by the phone whereas TUH students receive assignments and explanation from preceptors.  (ii) DIPE at NSU utilized oral presentations and student interaction in many forms (e.g. journal club, reflection regarding learned topics).  On the other hand, DIPE at TUH helped students learn about Medical Representative jobs and educated them in tablet/capsule identification practices.  (iii) In contrast, the TUH curriculum limits students’ performance to “experience via dissemination with health professional needs and patients’ needs”.  (iv) These clarified points are considered to be differences between DIPE at TUH and NSU.  (v) Following analysis of these points, an advanced model of DI education based on responses to DI phone inquiries and oral presentations including a journal club was proposed.
Conclusions: This study will contribute to improving DI education in Japan.

抄録全体を表示