Although compounding robots can support pharmacists in anticancer drug preparation, the usefulness of such robots in the daily work of pharmacists remains unclear. At Nagoya City University Hospital, we have used the CytoCare^® Chemotherapy Compounding Robot (Health Robotics) since 2012 and switched to ChemoRo™ (Yuyama Manufacturing Co.) in 2021. Here, we aimed to evaluate the practical usefulness of ChemoRo for pharmacists preparing anticancer drugs. The number of drug preparations in a 6-month period handled by CytoCare or ChemoRo was retrospectively investigated. Additionally, the time required if all preparations are made manually by pharmacists (assumptive time, previously defined to be 9.4 minutes per preparation) and the actual overall time required by manual and robotic procedures to prepare anticancer drugs were determined. Moreover, the ability of the robots to reduce the drug preparation time was analyzed by comparing the assumptive and overall times. CytoCare and ChemoRo handled 26.8％ (3,123/11,664) and 46.2％ (5,879/12,737) of all drug preparations, respectively, and the actual overall time was significantly shorter than the assumptive time in each investigation period (P < 0.001). Notably, the actual overall time required was significantly reduced when using ChemoRo as compared to using CytoCare (6.35 h/day and 3.45 h/day, respectively; P < 0.001). These findings demonstrate that robots can significantly reduce the time pharmacists spend on drug preparation and enhance the daily efficiency of pharmacies. Moreover, ChemoRo is superior to CytoCare in terms of time-saving potential. Thus, ChemoRo is a better option to achieve enhanced healthcare support for patients and medical staff.

This study aimed to analyze the psychological influence on the pharmacists who were involved in the preparation of a vaccine for the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) through a questionnaire survey, and to explore the factors that exist in the psychological background. The subjects were pharmacists who were engaged in the preparation of tozinameran at least once at the request of Kawanishi and Takarazuka City in Hyogo and who agreed to participate in the study. The questionnaire was comprised of 32 questions about their efforts to support vaccine preparation. After an exploratory factor analysis, nine factors were extracted, and the study subjects were classified into six clusters. Many of the pharmacists felt that they were able to obtain the understanding and cooperation of their families and coworkers when they participated in the vaccine preparation support work. Furthermore, many felt positively about the compensation, the number of pharmacists assigned, the support system of the office, a new social contribution through this vaccine preparation support work and the resulting sense of self-affirmation, expectations for cooperation among pharmacists and the expansion of their professional capabilities, and the need for further self-improvement. Conversely, approximately 30％ of the pharmacists felt a sense of burden and anxiety about being involved in vaccine preparation support, suggesting that mental health issues among these pharmacists will constitute an issue in the future.

This study aimed to clarify the attitudes toward career paths for pharmacists in Japan. A self-administered online questionnaire survey was delivered to the live and on-demand release attendees at the 31st annual meeting of the Japanese Society of Pharmaceutical Health Care and Sciences between October 14th and December 7th, 2021. A customer satisfaction (CS) analysis was performed to assess the association between the participants’ perspectives on career paths and satisfaction. The recovery rate was 90.3％ (65/72). The number of females and males was 57 and 8, respectively. The respondents were from diverse backgrounds of age, workplace, and position, etc. The median satisfaction scores of job, education & training system, research activities, relationships, management’s consideration of women, the presence of role models, salary, career path support by colleagues, career path support by supervisors, career path support by a family member, work-life balance, and career paths was 4 (interquartile range [IQR]: 3 - 5), 3 (IQR: 2 - 4), 3 (IQR: 2 - 4), 4 (IQR: 3 - 5), 4 (IQR: 2.5 - 5), 2 (IQR: 1 - 4), 4 (IQR: 2 - 5), 4 (IQR: 3 - 5), 4 (IQR: 2.5 - 5), 5 (IQR: 5 - 7), 4 (IQR: 3 - 5), and 4 (IQR: 3 - 5), respectively. CS analysis revealed that the education & training system, work-life balance, and research activities should be improved as a matter of highest priority for a career path. In conclusion, the findings may provide useful information to develop career paths for Japanese pharmacists in diverse careers and work styles in the future.

The docetaxel, cisplatin, and 5-fluorouracil (DCF) regimen is considered to be one of the treatment choices for esophageal cancer. Acute kidney injury (AKI) is one of the side effects of cisplatin, and the onset of AKI limits the use of cisplatin. However, the factors influencing the onset of AKI remain unknown. Therefore, we examined retrospectively the new factors influencing the onset of AKI in patients with DCF therapy. This study included forty-four cases, and nine cases (20.5％) had the onset of AKI. We examined clinical laboratory values before treatment as the factors influencing the onset of AKI. The incidence of AKI in patients whose serum β₂-microglobulin values were above the upper limit of normal values (2.0 mg/L) was 42.9％ (6/14) and significantly high (P = 0.019). As a result of this study, it was revealed that serum β₂-microglobulin is a new useful marker predicting the onset of CDDP-induced AKI.