In Japan, based on the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s “Pharmacy Vision for Patients” (2015), there has been a growing need to shift from “drug-centered, physical work” to “patient-centered, interpersonal work.” Medication counseling is one of the most important tasks of pharmacists. In the present study, we focused on the questions asked by patients during medication counseling, and statistically analyzed the content of the questions and the patient attributes obtained from the patient medication profile. The study was conducted from 2018 to 2019 on patients who visited two pharmacies. Data from a total of 3,300 patients was collected, of which 859 asked questions during medication counseling, accounting for about 26% of the total. Attributes that significantly influenced the asking of questions included gender, new prescriptions, and who was being instructed, especially for women and parents of infants. In terms of topic, questions about the duration and timing of taking the medication and about the medication itself were common in all departments. In terms of medication effects, there were many questions about topical and central nervous system medications, but there were also questions about non-medication matters such as tests. When providing medication counseling, it is expected that pharmacists will actively provide instructions to resolve patients’ questions based on the characteristics of each pharmacy and on patient demographics, as well as improve the quality of interpersonal services according to the patient’s background.

Owing to the fear of worsening their relationship with physicians, several pharmacists hesitate to contact physicians regarding prescription-related questions. We investigated the personal factors of pharmacists contributing to their hesitation to contact physicians regarding prescription-related questions. We analyzed the responses of 213 pharmacy pharmacists. A comparison of the degree of hesitation to contact physicians regarding prescription-related questions revealed that the most hesitant questions were pertaining to “the same prescription content from before”; insurance questions (3.37) were higher than medical questions (3.20) (P＝0.006). The multiple regression analysis results revealed that “pharmacy work is busy and there is no time” was influenced by regular employees (medical (β＝−0.181, P＝0.030) and insurance (β＝−0.257, P＝0.002)). “A co-pharmacist said no questions needed” was influenced by the sex of pharmacists (medical (β＝0.194, P＝0.011) and insurance (β＝0.177, P＝0.020)). Overall, type of questions (medical or insurance) and individual backgrounds (prescription issuing medical institution, pharmacy scale, location, age, sex, employment type, years of service, current management pharmacist, and hospital work experience) have a complex effect on the pharmacists’ psychology. To facilitate pharmacists to contact physicians regarding prescription-related questions, physicians and pharmacists should share information and communicate on a daily basis, such as actively participate in joint training programs. It is also important to create an environment where regular employees and female pharmacists can work comfortably. The smooth resolution of prescription-related questions by relieving the psychological pressure of pharmacists will improve patient safety.

We evaluated the role of pharmacists in an interdisciplinary pain center using text mining analysis. We investigated 28 patients who visited an interdisciplinary pain center from May 2014 to July 2015. All patients were interviewed by a pharmacist. Further, we performed morphological analysis of medical records; classification of appearing words into “medicines/side effects,” “diagnosis/disease name,” “pain site,” “pain characteristics/concomitant symptoms,” “life/environment,” and “mental”; and correspondence analysis. The frequently appearing words “pain characteristics/concomitant symptoms” and “medicines/side effects” were used by 47.2% doctors and 35.3% pharmacists, respectively. In the correspondence analysis, doctors frequently referred to “pain characteristics/concomitant symptoms,” pharmacists frequently referred to “medicines/side effects,” and nurses frequently referred to “life/environment” and “pain site.” The fact that the three occupations used distinguishing phrases suggests that each is specialized in a distinct area. At an interdisciplinary pain center, we interviewed a nurse, a pharmacist, and a doctor, and shared information from various angles. The pharmacist focused on listening to the “medicines/side effects,” which is information related to his profession. Pharmacists contribute to medical care by recording information in medical records and sharing the information with other occupations. It is necessary to continue to provide information related to our specialized profession, respect each other, and provide high-quality medical care.

Home-based and in hospital pharmacists at our hospital pharmacy participated in this study. A survey of the home-based pharmacists’ work contents was tabulated from November 2019 to May 2021. Furthermore, a questionnaire survey was administered within the pharmacy in May 2020. 90% of the hospital pharmacists would consider some drug information management to be able to work from home. Moreover, evaluation of the questionnaires revealed that more than 90% of the in-hospital pharmacists were “satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied” with deliverables of home-based pharmacists. The in-hospital pharmacists found communication tools (e.g., social networking services, telephone, and web-conferencing systems) to be useful for facilitating collaboration with the home-based pharmacist. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the internet environment to work from home. Moreover, it is important to create an environment where pharmacists can work from home according to their desire and needs in cases such as childcare, nursing care, during treatment, and during a pandemic. This study indicates that hospital pharmacists can carry out their responsibilities and demonstrate their work abilities not only in the hospital pharmacy setting but also in a remote working environment.

Introduction: This study aimed to determine the trends in the use of medicines that can affect the recognition function of patients aged ≧70 years. Since 2015 when the “Safe Drug Treatment Guidelines for the Elderly” was revised, these medicines are dispensed at a community pharmacy located in a satellite city. Methods: We compared the dispensing results from 2014 to 2015-2019 and investigated the ratio of prescriptions containing the medicines that can affect the recognition function using the clinical department and medicine type. Results: Prescriptions containing medicines that can affect recognition function have been on a downward trend since 2015. During this period, the number of medicines per prescription did not decrease, and the medicines that can affect recognition function were replaced with other medicines. On the other hand, no decrease in the number of medicines that can affect recognition function was observed in internal medicine. In medicine type, the ratio of benzodiazepines drugs decreased; however, it increased again in 2019. Conclusion: There was a decreasing trend in the use of medicines that can affect recognition function of the elderly in departments other than internal medicine after 2015.

The purpose of this study was to identify patient-side factors that facilitate their provision of information to pharmacists (Survey A) and identify questions to assess their willingness to provide information to pharmacies (Survey B). Two web-based surveys were conducted among individuals aged 50-79 years who regularly brought their prescriptions to pharmacies. Survey A was conducted in February 2020 with 540 respondents. Multiple regression analysis was conducted, with “patients’ provision of information to pharmacies” as the objective variable. Survey B was conducted in November 2020 with 126 respondents for each three patterns of questions regarding “patients’ provision of information to pharmacies.” The distribution of responses was compared. More than half of the respondents were willing to provide information to pharmacists on the contents of the initial questionnaire. In contrast, less than half of the respondents were willing to provide information about the physician’s explanation of drug treatment, history of the disease, concerns and consultations about medication, blood tests results, and unusual symptoms. Factors on the patients’ side that promoted the provision of information included having a family pharmacist, a sense of trust in the pharmacist, recognition as a medical professional, and understanding the pharmacist’s work. As an indicator to evaluate the increase in patients’ willingness to provide information, the questionnaire statement “I will actively tell the pharmacist about [　].” was found to be appropriate. Words such as a physician’s explanation of drug treatment, history of the disease were included in [　].

In this study, we aimed to clarify awareness regarding genetic testing among pharmacists in Hiroshima City to contribute to regional medical care provided in pharmacies. Pharmacists should consider the advantages and disadvantages of being able to easily receive genetic tests. We conducted an awareness survey on genetic testing among pharmacists belonging to the Hiroshima Pharmaceutical Association, at 645 pharmacies in Hiroshima City. Responses were received from 674 pharmacists, yielding a response rate of 43.4% (280 pharmacies). In response to the question, “Can you perform genetic testing at a pharmacy?”, 6.7% of pharmacists answered yes and 65.4% said this was impossible. Among the 92.4% of pharmacists other than those available, 79.6% answered “I am worried about my knowledge of genetic testing,” followed by 39.3% “cannot take the time,” 29.2% “hurdles for new business,” 28.1% “problems such as pharmacy facilities to protect personal information,” and 15.7% “ethical difficulties.” From the age difference, pharmacists do not carry out genetic testing even if they have knowledge; they need to make an ethical judgment to determine whether to conduct genetic testing. Additionally, although pharmacies provide medication guidance and protect personal information, 28.1% of pharmacists answered that there are problems with their pharmacy’s ability to protect personal information when handling “genetic information.” Pharmacists should consider it critical to treat “genetic information” as personal information, with the utmost care and understanding.

The number of patients with osteoporosis is an estimated 12,800,000 in Japan. Osteoporosis represents a risk factor for becoming bedridden, and also for increased mortality. It would thus be important to take measures to prevent non-examination and treatment interruption as their rate is high. We recruited participants at a health-supporting event for local residents at our pharmacy on April 14, 2019 and obtained consent from 40 individuals to participate in this study. At this event held by a pharmacy, we conducted bone density measurement and osteoporosis-related preventive education by pharmacists, considering the influence the event had on health-related awareness and behavior in the local residents. Knowledge of osteoporosis was higher after than before the events. Participant health and lifestyle awareness was not observed between before the event and one month after the event. However, one month after the event, several changes could be observed in the behavior of 79.4% (27/34) of the participants. Based on these results, bone density measurement and osteoporosis-related preventive education by pharmacists are suggested to increase osteoporosis-related knowledge among local residents and to promote behavior change related to healthcare and osteoporosis.

In Japan, as a Social Security Reform measure against workforce decrease by 2040, robotic devices for nursing care and medication intake support have been utilised. However, evaluation reports about the robots and studies about their evaluation by patients are lacking. Therefore, we studied medication status with robotic assistance as well as patients’ evaluation of usability of robotic assistance. Participants were twelve patients whose median age was 73.0 (min 39.0-max 82.0), the median of number of drugs of a maximum intake day, which means the one of the week in which drugs are taken most, was 10.0 (min 4.0-max 17.0), and the median of maximum number of times to take drugs per day was 3.0 (min 1.0-max 4.0). Four were suspected of having dementia, based on the evaluation of their cognitive function tests. No patient missed any dose during the utilisation of the support device in taking medicine. All patients reported that the conditions of taking medicine and the recognition of the time to take it were improved. Therefore, the incorporation of support devices in taking medicine is expected to avoid missing to doses.