Objective: The learning system "KimBen pharma" was introduced into pharmacy education at Okayama University to improve the quality of pharmacy education in accordance with the revision of the Model Core Curriculum for Pharmacy Education.

Methods: In this study, we conducted a questionnaire survey of third- to fifth-year pharmacy students as of 2023 to investigate their satisfaction with the learning system and survey on students' awareness following its introduction.

Results: Overall, 79% of the students accorded a score of 4 or higher for the item "satisfaction with using KimBen pharma." In addition, 95.2 and 91.9% of the students scored 4 or higher in the "I could feel the clinical pharmacist's point of view" and "I could imagine that what I learned at the university would be useful in the clinical setting" sections, respectively.

Conclusion: Pharmacy education using KimBen pharma is highly satisfactory for students, and the system is considered a desirable educational tool across all grade levels from third to fifth year. Additionally, "KimBen pharma" helps students understand the perspective of pharmacists in clinical settings and assists them in concretely visualizing how the content learned at university can be applied in real-world clinical practice.

Objective: To prevent the mis-prescription of drugs that differs from the true intention, it is important to understand the factors underlying mis-prescription. In this study, we focused on drug prescription errors caused by drug name similarities and compared drug dispensing errors by pharmacists to clarify their characteristics.

Methods: We extracted cases of drug prescription and dispensing errors caused by drug name similarity from "near-miss events from pharmacies" reported from March 2020 to October 2022, which were curated by the Japan Council for Quality Health Care. By comparing the characteristics of pairs of "drugs intended to be prescribed or dispensed" and "drugs that were mis-prescribed or misdispensed" (called as drug name pairs), we analyzed trends in drug prescription errors caused by drug name similarity. Specifically, we evaluated drug name similarity (calculated using m2-Visually Weighted Head and Tail-weighted Fragmentary Pattern-Based Measure; m2-vwhtfrag), the number of initial common characters, and drug efficacy similarity (evaluated by drug efficacy classification number) in drug name pairs and assessed their occurrence among drug prescribing and dispensing error cases.

Results: From the "near-miss events from pharmacies," 234 cases of prescription errors and 152 cases of dispensing errors caused by drug name similarity were extracted. Drug prescription errors exhibited higher drug name similarity (i.e., higher values of m2-vwhtfrag) and more initial common characteristics than drug dispensing errors. In contrast, drug prescription errors showed a lower consistency in drug efficacy similarity.

Conclusion: In this study, we found that prescription errors by physicians were more likely to be influenced by drug name similarity and less likely to be influenced by drug efficacy similarity compared to the dispensing errors by pharmacists. These findings are reasonable, considering the characteristics of the prescription ordering systems.

Background: This study surveyed pharmacists registered with the Yamaguchi Prefectural Pharmacists Association to determine the key elements of tablet printing design that enhance visibility and distinguishability during dispensing.

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to identify suitable design components for tablets that enhance visibility and distinguishability by utilizing text data.

Methods: Given the high risk of medication errors due to similar-looking tablets, the study employed KH Coder for text mining analysis of free-text responses.

Results: Results indicated that design elements such as "horizontal writing," "straight lines, " and "emphasis on characters" significantly improve visibility and distinguishability, particularly for similar-looking tablets. The findings from this study provide specific guidelines for optimal tablet design, aiming to improve pharmacists' efficiency and enhance medication safety.

Conclusions: KH Coder proved to be a valuable tool for analyzing qualitative data in the medical field. While the study focused on pharmacists in Yamaguchi Prefecture, expanding the survey to a national scale is recommended to validate and generalize the findings. This research supports the development of standardized tablet designs that can minimize dispensing errors and ensure patient safety, highlighting the importance of effective tablet printing design in pharmaceutical practice.

Objective: Of the total number of prescriptions received, the percentage of refill prescriptions in May-June 2022 was 0.053%. In order to speculate on the reasons for the low utilization rate of the refill system and future developments, we surveyed patients who have been receiving continuous drug treatment for more than 6 months to determine their attitudes toward the refill system.

Methods: The survey was conducted on the Web and valid responses were obtained from 290 respondents.

Results: The respondents were 44.8% male and 55.2% female, with a mean age of 45.6 ± 10.5 years. Respondents' diseases included hypertension (32.1%), dyslipidemia (15.9%), diabetes (15.2%), psychiatric diseases (10.0%), skin diseases (9.3%), and others. Of the respondents, 83.4% had no prescription change within 6 months, and 69.0% had access to treatment medications for the purpose of going to the hospital, indicating that their symptoms were stable and they could use the refill system. In addition, we found that only 17.2% were aware of the refill system. However, 73.4% of respondents indicated their intention to use the refill system in the future. Therefore, our results strongly suggest that the reason for the lack of its use is due to a lack of awareness of it.

Conclusion: It is expected that the refill system will be promoted in the future through awareness-raising events and education of the public. It is thought that the use of the refill system may cause delays in the detection of adverse drug reactions and the overlooking of worsening health conditions. The issue is whether pharmacists can appropriately judge whether or not to continue refill prescriptions.

Objective: The Immunization Health Damage Relief Program was established to provide "prompt and wide-ranging" relief for health damage caused by routine vaccination.

Methods: In this study, utilizing the report of the Subcommittee on Infectious Diseases and Immunization, we investigated the relief status of persons who received the new coronavirus vaccine. The study period was three years, from 2021 to 2023, and the number of cases accepted, the number of certifications, the number of denials, and the number of delays were analyzed.

Results: Most of the claims were for medical expenses and medical benefits, and the remaining claims were for lump-sum death benefits and funeral expenses. The approval rate was 84.9%, and the denial rate was 14.1%. The scrutiny rate was less than 30% since July 2022, but with the establishment of a new study group on January 2023, the rate rose to approximately 70%. Initially, none of the lump-sum death payments were approved, but later the approval rate increased, and there was a period when almost all the lump-sum death payments were approved.

Conclusions: The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) is responding as quickly as possible to the increasing number of applications, but the number of health relief applications is unprecedented in the history of vaccines. For the victims and their families, the situation does not appear to be satisfactory.