J. W. F. van Mil

Safety in medication use

Over the last decades, medication errors have become an important part of the discussions around medication use processes. This is not only due to a better analysis of the prescribing, dispensing and medicine use process as a result of the report ‘To err is Human’ (2000, Institute of Medicines, USA), but also to the realisation that drug-related problems may prevent optimal outcomes. Traditionally, the focus of most pharmacists is on the prescribing and dispensing process, and this tradition can also be recognised in this book. In fact, the term ‘medication error’ which is defined as preventable harm relating to medication use in clinical practice, is used especially in those settings. The terms drug-related problems and drug therapy problems, especially used when discussing medicine use, are less visible in this book. Mary Tully and Bryony Dean Franklin coordinated the contribution of 50 people from over 10 countries, including three ‘patients’, to tell the story about safety in medication use, and focussed on technology and professional behaviour. In three main sections: Problems in the Medication Use Process, Approaches to understanding and resolving the problems, and Putting the solutions into practice, they elaborate the impact of medication errors and provide potential solutions. The book delivers an overview about both theory and practice, from different perspectives. It discusses all kinds of novel technical solutions to solve medication safety problems, including electronic prescribing, the use of barcodes and automated dispensing. Especially in the second chapter, important theoretical background is given which helps to understand the third chapter, where solutions are discussed. This book will especially be of value for health-system and hospital pharmacists, not so much for community pharmacists (who naturally have a role in medication safety). There also will be an important place for this book in the pharmacy education. From the perspective of the daily practice of clinical pharmacists, the book is not very helpful for their direct patient care. Medication reconciliation is discussed as a technical procedure, but not the clinical medication review. Pharmaceutical care nor medication management (or whatever term you want to use) seem to be a leading topic. Quality of prescribing, and quality of drug-use are just mentioned as a source for professional errors, not as concern for medicine users. In vain one will search in the book for important information on patient or medicine-user behaviour like adherence or patient ADR reporting, or on the patient-care giver interactions like in counselling and creating awareness. The authors should nevertheless be complimented on making such as broad and important contribution to the profession of pharmacy.

Michael D. Randall and Karen E. Neil: disease management: a guide to clinical pharmacology

Clinical pharmacology is a topic that is essential for clinical pharmacists. If you select, apply and review medicines, and monitor the patients’ wellbeing and quality of life, you must know about the treatment of their diseases. Not every (student) pharmacist learns about the optimal treatment of diseases, but if you want to practice in a setting together with medical doctors you should be able to speak their language, and share their approach to health and disease. Clinical pharmacology is typically the field of expertise for this interface between the professions. This book can be very helpful in increasing the pharmacist knowledge about the use of medicines in specific diseases, and thus supporting decisions about patient care. After some more general (but interesting) chapters on signs and symptoms, clinical laboratory tests, lifestyle and herbal medicines, the second part of the book is dedicated to treatments, drug choices, adverse events and pharmacokinetics. The remaining nine sections are dedicated to specific diseases and their treatments, organized under main groups of diseases: cardiovascular, respiratory, central nervous system, pain, cancer, infections, dermal problems and endocrine disorders. Each chapter generally describes the disease characteristics, pathology, clinical features and treatment goals. In spite of the very interesting content, there seem also to be shortcomings and structural challenges. I am for instance not sure if the title of the book represents its content well. Disease management indicates more than managing medication only. It relates to general standards and protocols for treating diseases, the roles of other healthcare professionals, and as such certain aspects (non-pharmacological treatment, deprescribing) are not covered in full. The title ‘Disease Management’ might be a bit misleading. In the second part of the book, I would have welcomed a general chapter and the role of treatment protocols and electronic prescribing. The choice of disease topics seems somewhat unstructured and perhaps incomplete. Why only diabetes and thyroid diseases in the section endocrine disorders, but no growth hormone deficiency? Why only a general chapter on cancer and chemotherapy, and cancer and palliative care, but no information on the most frequently occurring cancers such as lung cancer, breast, ovarian cancer, and bowel cancer(s), that each have different treatments, and different treatment sequences and duration? Why are the viral infections (hepatitis, AIDS) missing in the section on infectious diseases. Why is ‘the renal patient’ (if there exists such a patient) put in the chapter of cardiovascular diseases? While the content of the book is definitely highly interesting for pharmacists and pharmacy students, the organization of topics and chapter could be improved, as well as its comprehensiveness. This book on Disease Management is more a reading and study book, but not so much a reference book. It would be nice if such functions could be combined, and if the book could develop into a more comprehensive work on clinical pharmacology. This book, that already appeared in 2016, might now also need some updates.

Stockley's drug interactions 11th edition.

In 2008 and 2014 we reviewed the pocket edition of this major Reference Book, and were impressed (Pharm World Science 2008;30:375, Int J Clin Pharm 2014;36:667). However, the revised version of the real reference book now also was published, which usually happens every 3 years. Over 1600 pages cite the broad evidence for 4500 interactions, while referring to 27,000 information sources. The pocket version ‘only’ has 2200 monographs. The ‘big’ Stockley’s remains ‘the’ famous reference work that provides concise and rather complete information on clinically relevant drug–drug interactions (DDIs). It provides health care professionals with practical information on medicines interactions and their management. The resource is compiled in close cooperation with the Martindale team in the publishing division of the British Royal Pharmaceutical Society, and is also available on-line via Medicines Complete. In the new version 350 new monographs were added, and for this 11th edition the section for anti-diabetic medicines was revised. The list of medicines that have the risk of prolonging the QT-interval was updated. Medicines have been arranged in chapters by therapeutic group. The section on anticoagulants also has the information on DOACs, but how to find such information? Like in the pocket companion it is important to use the index for the ‘parent book’, because for instance the direct acting anticoagulants (DOACS) in this book are called ‘Activated factor X inhibitors’, an unusual term in daily practice. Looking up the medicine name brings you to the appropriate section. The index covers more than 200 pages! Yet, the editors warn that one should not only look up the medicine names, but also the names of the therapeutic groups. In the introduction the editors suggest that the advice concerning the concomitant use of ACE inhibitors and ATII antagonist was adapted. Although the evidence for a pharmacokinetic interaction between such agents is limited, the Stockley’s still warns for a possible hyperkalemia, renal failure and hypotension. They follow the advice of the EMA, and do not recommend combining the two types of medicines.

Pharmacy practice research methods

There are many books about research methodologies, some less detailed and some more detailed. Most of these books focus on a specific field in society, sociology, psychology and health care. In healthcare, again, there are books and papers with research methodologies available. Although such materials may also be useful in pharmacy practice research (PPR), certain aspects of pharmacy are just not properly covered by the existing publications. This book fills the gap. And the first chapter, by Christine Bond, tells you why this gap needs filling. In an excellent expose she writes about the necessity of pharmacy practice research, as part of health services research. She explains why this type of research is so timely, and why evidence and evidence based pharmacy practice are needed. In the second chapter, Parastou Donyai takes you through the different methodologies of the book with great insight. In the next two chapters, the essence of qualitative and quantitative research are discussed. And from Chapter 5 onwards the methods and concepts are outlined, often illustrated with examples from published studies. Is this the ultimate book about PPR? No it is not. The book focusses on especially qualitative research, and is clearly written from a social pharmacy perspective. Quantitative aspects of PPR receive relatively little attention, although in practice, the quantitative aspects of research in pharmacy practice seems to be more outspoken. The description of pharmacoepidemiology is somewhat limited, as is the description of the international modelling for health economic studies. There is relatively little attention for the broad field of implementation research, and its many different models and schools. Looking at the author list, it is noteworthy that almost all authors (apart from the Danes) have an Anglosaxon background, or come from the English research tradition such as the authors from Qatar. There are no authors from Latin and other countries that currently also produce research in the field of pharmacy practice such as France, Spain, Brazil, China or Japan. The research tradition in such countries is different, and they might have valuable additions to a book like this. On the other hand, due to language differences, they often publish in non-English journals, and the names of the key-people are relatively unknown.

Linda J. Dodds: Drugs in use, case studies for pharmacists and prescribers

The book ‘Drugs in use’ focusses on clinical skills, and that is a very useful area for modern pharmacists, both in hospital as well as community. The book offers a very wide variety of speciality case histories in many different fields of pharmacotherapy, some applicable in a clinical setting, others in community. There have been at least 40 contributors who have brought together the cases, and that can be noticed. The style of the case descriptions is not always homogeneous. When I was scanning through the book, I got ‘stuck’ easily by the instructive and fascinating case descriptions. I met patients that I would, in my practice, never know so many details of and this annoyed me at first. On further reading I just noticed that I was learning new things, and this probably is the strength of the book. It helps to translate abstract knowledge into applicable clinical expertise. According to the introduction, the book targets especially independent pharmacist prescribers and pharmacists providing medication reviews and performing clinical roles. Well, as Editor in Chief of an international journal, I cannot but think that this book then is not for me. There are no independent pharmacist prescribers outside the UK, and I also know of very few pharmacists really performing clinical roles. So, this makes the book really only useful for the UK market. While I do teach medication review in the community, the basis of most cases in the book are national NICE guidelines and it is assumed that laboratory values are at hand. Unfortunately, every developed country still has its own treatment guidelines for most diseases, and most pharmacists (even in hospital) cannot lay their hands on for instance, laboratory values or proper diagnoses.

Stockley’s drug interactions pocket companion 2014

Some time ago we reviewed the 2008 version of this convenient pocketbook. The ‘big’ Stockley’s remains a famous reference work that provides concise, accurate, and rather complete information on clinically relevant drug– drug interactions (DDIs). The first edition was published in 1981, and ever since it has been updated. Digital versions of Stockley contain all the information in the print version (with the exception of the back-of-book index) and are updated with new and revised information every quarter. Stockleys provides the guidance that practitioners need in the minefield of interactions. In practice the almost continuous debate about clinical relevance of interactions is often concluded by a quick search in the smaller brother, the pocket book. The pocket companion is a printed excerpt made by clinicians, easy to use, but it still contains over 2,200 monographs. Each monograph gives concise information on the interaction, its clinical relevance and what to do with it in practice. Some relevant interactions with food or herbal medicines are also included. You can take the book along, since it fits in the pocket of your coat or jacket. The user has to be aware, however, that sometimes druggroups are discussed, instead of the individual drugs. There is, for instance, a section on antihypertensives, which basically only stresses that you get an additional effect on the blood pressure, when you combine two of such drugs. In the index it appears as if there is a separate monograph for each individual drug. The user also must learn to work through the index only. When checking in the monographs for interactions with zopiclone, no interactions are shown (‘No interaction monographs have been included for drugs beginning with the letter Z’). Nevertheless in the index, nine interactions can be found. On the wards, but also when doing medication reviews, this Pocket Companion comes in very handy, but in the future a tablet version would probably even be better. Paper reference works are slowly disappearing from practice.

Alison Brayfield (Editor-in-Chief): Martindale, the complete drug reference. 38th edition

Official price: € 581/£ 459/US

Loyd V. Allen (Editor-in-chief): Remington, the science and practice of pharmacy

695 (includes VAT. It can be wise to shop around!) Personal account for online access to the Martindale (through MedicinesComplete) costs £ 270 Euro annually.

An ESCP message

Over 4 kilo’s of pharmacy information on more than 2,700 pages in two volumes. A new edition of the Remington appears every 5–6 years, and it is becoming heavier and heavier. For many English speaking pharmacists and pharmacy students it is the reference. The book describes the science and practice of pharmacy, where the practice is now concentrated in the second volume. The book was first published in 1886 by Joseph P. Remington, but from the edition of 1948 onwards, the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy was responsible for it. The newest version is published in close cooperation with the London-UK based Pharmaceutical Press, which also publishes the Martindale. And the two reference books started working together in this edition, in order to make the Remington more international. In the first volume, the science of Pharmacy is described in 6 sections: Introduction (with information about the scope and evaluation of pharmacy and a chapter on information resources); Pharmaceutical Chemistry; Pharmaceutical analysis and Quality control; Pharmaceutics; Pharmaceutical Dosage Forms: Manufacturing and Compounding; Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics. Every section has a number of, sometimes highly specialised, chapters written by experts, and properly referenced. References come almost exclusively from English-language journals and books from the USA and UK. This may limit the comprehensiveness. The section with pharmaceutical and medicinal monographs now also incorporates the key information from the 37th Martindale. It is unclear why both the Remington and the Martindale should contain similar information. Using the Remington would be much easier without the 600 pages of monographs, and almost every pharmacist does have the Martindale somewhere. Actually, monographs should no longer be printed, but presented on the web, to be able to update the information instantly. Luckily, like the Martindale, the Remington has an on-line version, and when you buy the book you also get free access to the online data. The second volume of the Remington, on the practice of pharmacy, does not really have an international scope. This becomes especially clear in a number of chapters, of which Chapter 91, about ‘Laws governing pharmacy’, can be called the most striking example. This chapter is about the USA only, and even lacks every reference to the existence of other pharmacy systems in this world. Looking at the extensive reference lists of each chapter, one can also see that the chapters in this volume are almost fully based on American literature. Although the second volume can be of some use to, for instance, European or Asian pharmacists, for them it cannot fulfil the claim of the Editor-in-Chief that the Remington is the definite reference on all aspects of the science and practice of pharmacy. In the big world, it is not.

Thank you to the reviewers

The International Journal for Clinical Pharmacy is supported by the ESCP, the European Society of Clinical Pharmacy. ESCP members have free access to the journal and the archives, dating back to 1979, when the journal was still called Pharmaceutisch Weekblad Scientific Edition (later PWS, or Pharmacy World & Science). Since some time ESCP communicates with its members through email. It is noted, however, that some emails do not arrive at their destinations. This is usually due to spamfilters that do not allow bulk-messages through. If you know that your institution (or your own computer) works with a spam filter, make sure it allows you to receive messages from escp@planet.nl, escp@bluewin.ch, mci-group.com, or escpweb.org, and add the addresses or domains to the positive list(s)! Please also note that the membership can be renewed on-line (see www.escpweb.org), and that is the easiest option for both the members as well as the office.