The disintegration time of orally disintegrating (OD) tablets varies with their ingredients and preparation procedures. The disintegration time of OD tablets should be examined with an OD tablet tester, whose results are highly correlated with those of sensory evaluation. However, compared with the disintegration tester according to the Japanese Pharmacopoeia, OD tablet testers are available at limited facilities, thus precluding analyses.The present study examined whether OD tablets with appropriate disintegration time can be selected based on the disintegration time determined with the disintegration tester according to the Japanese Pharmacopoeia and formulation information on OD tablets. Thirteen products of orally disintegrating tablets (3 mg) of donepezil hydrochloride were analyzed, demonstrating little difference in the disintegration time of a general tablet preparation containing crospovidone between the disintegration tester according to the Japanese Pharmacopoeia and OD tablet tester. Thus, based on the disintegration time of the disintegration tester according to the Japanese Pharmacopoeia, appropriate OD tablets can be selected using the formulation information.

Anti-influenza drugs are dispensed in both oral and inhalation formulations in health insurance pharmacies. The drug administration guidance time of oral formulations may be shorter than that of inhaled formulations, but no studies have reported the time for drug administration guidance of two formulations of anti-influenza drugs in pharmacies. Therefore, we measured the time for drug administration guidance and the patient’s pharmacy stay using time stamp data in pharmacies for patients prescribed oral (oseltamivir and/or baloxavir marboxil) and inhaled (zanamivir and/or laninamivir) anti-influenza drugs in the 2018–2019 season. The mean time for drug administration instruction for anti-influenza drugs was 3.13 min (n=44,080) and 4.68 min (n=19,710) for oral and inhaled agents, respectively, suggesting that it was about 1.5 times longer in inhaled agents than oral agents. The mean time of pharmacy stay for patients prescribed oral and inhaled agents of anti-influenza was 14.61 min (n=49,572) and 14.98 min (n=22,937), respectively, with a small time difference. Further studies are needed to elucidate the benefit from shorter contact time during oral treatment.

The family pharmacist system aims to improve the safety and efficacy of drug therapy for patients. It provides an integrated and continuous understanding of patients’ medication information and pharmaceutical management and instructions. However, the rate of payment for family pharmacist instruction has not increased. Thus far, there have been surveys on patient factors preventing the progress of the family pharmacist system, but there have been no surveys on the pharmacist factors. For this reason, we conducted an Internet-based survey on the factors pertaining to their duties and the facility standards that family pharmacists find burdensome. We examined the pharmacist factors that hinder the progress of the family pharmacist system. “After-hours consultation services,” “participation in community activities,” “increase in patient cost sharing,” “home medical care,” and “telephonic confirmation after dispensing” were factors perceived as highly burdensome. These items were identified as factors that hinder the progress of the family pharmacist system.

Social networking services (SNS) facilitate the distribution and acquisition of information, which may lead to the spread of information that lacks evidence. In this study, we clarified the characteristics of patients who trust SNS information about medicines and considered the role that pharmacy pharmacists should play. We surveyed 599 patients who visited 101 of our insurance pharmacies in Hokkaido, Japan, between November 18 and 22, 2019, to determine their attitudes toward SNS. Among 581 valid responses, 231 had experience using SNS. It was observed that information that was “referenced by newspapers, magazines, TV, etc.” tended to be trusted for lifestyle-related diseases and painkillers, information that was “actively obtained” for side effects, and information that was “shared more frequently” for anticancer drug, diet, and beauty. In addition, a tendency to trust physicians, pharmacists, and nurses was observed among the senders of SNS information on medicines. Therefore, it is important for pharmacists to correctly evaluate SNS information and to encourage revising information that lacks evidence.

This study aimed to clarify the current status of stress among pharmacists in home health care. We mailed a stress questionnaire to 633 community pharmacies receiving home health care in Aichi Prefecture. Two hundred fifty-seven valid responses were collected for 43 questions and the mean and standard deviation were calculated for each of seven factors extracted by factor analysis in previous studies. The results showed that pharmacists in home health care were stressed about building trusting relationships with patients, behavior including verbal abuse by patients, the work environment, and tasks such as workload. Comparison by attribute showed that women, younger pharmacists with shorter experience, and full-time pharmacists with more opportunities to interact with patients felt more stress. In terminal care, “death of the patient” was a stressor, and pharmacists who had no experience with terminally ill patients were found to feel more stressed. Our findings suggest that a training system for acquiring knowledge about home health care and the end-of-life care as well as the development of the work environment may help reduce the stress of pharmacists in home health care.

A questionnaire survey was conducted for foreigners who visited Japan to clarify the problems that they face and their peace of mind or lack thereof when receiving needed medical care during visits to Japan. As the result of this, 62.6% of the respondents answered that medical information is limited. In addition to the lack of information in English, the lack of English-speaking medical professionals was also cited as a reason for this. And of the 98 foreign visitors to Japan who had actually visited a medical institution in Japan, 66 respondents answered that there was a medical interpreter at the medical institution, and of these, 41 respondents were concerned about communication. In addition, for foreigners visiting Japan, it became also suggested that various anxieties over language and communication might not be fully resolved even when using a medical interpreter.

Between April 2019 and March 2021, tracing reports collected by our pharmacy group, were examined and evaluated for the trend of rate at which a change of prescription (from doctor-recommended prescription to pharmacist-recommended prescription) was accepted, and were also categorized and evaluated by content of prescription changed. The number of reports collected during the period evaluated was 740, with 351 cases of proposed prescription changes. Among the cases of proposed prescription changes by the pharmacists, the percentage increased from 59.7% in April–September 2019 to 63.2% between October 2019 and March 2020, 70.1% in April–September 2020, and 74.0% between October 2020 and March 2021. The main categories with a high likelihood of getting the prescription modified were, “organizing remaining medicines” (77/81 cases, 95.1% change rate), “improvement of medication status” (59/71 cases, 83.1% change rate), and “medication reduction” (26/35 cases, 74.3% change rate). Although the number of reports was small (5 cases), all requests for the “aspect of pharmaceutical characteristics” were changed. This study showed that performing pharmacists’ unique tasks, such as “organizing remaining medicines,” “improving adherence,” “reducing medicines,” and “proposals from the viewpoint of formulation characteristics,” enhances and improves the quality of co-operation with doctors.

This study was aimed at investigating which agents recommended for nursing women affected with herpes zoster in the context of the safety for their infants. Surveyed agents were acyclovir (ACV), valacyclovir (VCV), famciclovir (FCV), and Amenamevir (AMV). We investigated whether the safety information for infants within the Package Inserts, the Interview Form, the Drugs and Lactation Database (LactMed), and the Drug in Pregnancy and Lactation (DPL). In addition, we collected some parameters such as milk to plasma ratio (M/P ratio) and the blood drug concentration using their information materials to estimate the Relative Infant Dose (RID) for each agent. Safety information for ACV and VCV obtained from the LactMed and DPL showed that these drugs may have the high safety for infants. Insufficient information regarding the safety for infant was provided in the PI, the DPL, and the LactMed of FCV and AMV, respectively. In future, clinical studies to enrich the information on the safety for infants of FCV and AMV should be conducted.

In response to the expansion of COVID-19 infections, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare introduced “0410 correspondence”, an online and telephone medical care/medication guidance contact, as a timely and special measure. We conducted a questionnaire-based survey to appreciate pharmacies’ use of “0410 correspondence” for prescriptions. We found that only a small portion of pharmacies used this service for prescribing medication online, although the number of pharmacies introducing such system is increasing, and may increase further in the future as a new tool. Thanks to “0410 correspondence”, it has become easier to use online medication instruction. Moving forward, it is our objective to promote this service as the optimal pharmacy practice for patients, in the light of its various strengths an online trend that should be emphasized without delay. In addition, we hope that this system will introduce more opportunities for new activities by pharmacists.