This thesis deals with problem solving of general practitioners (GPs), which is explored with different methods and from different perspectives. The general aim was to explore and describe rules of thumb and to analyse the management of respiratory and urinary tract infections (RTI and UTI) in general practice in Sweden. The results are based upon focus group interviews concerning rules of thumb and a prospective diagnosis-prescription study concerning the management of patients allocated a diagnosis of RTI or UTI. In addition unpublished data are given from structured telephone interviews concerning specific rules of thumb in acute sinusitis and prevailing cough. GPs were able to verbalize their rules of thumb, which could be called tacit knowledge. A specific set of rules of thumb was used for rapid assessment when emergency and psychosocial problems were identified. Somatic problems seemed to be the expected, normal state. In the further consultation the rules of thumb seemed to be used in an act of balance between the individual and the general perspective. There was considerable variation between the rules of thumb of different GPs for patients with acute sinusitis and prevailing cough. In their rules of thumb the GPs seemed to integrate their medical knowledge and practical experience of the consultation. A high number of near-patient antigen tests to probe Streptococcus pyogenes (Strep A tests) and C-reactive protein (CRP) tests were performed in patients, where testing was not recommended. There was only a slight decrease in antibiotic prescribing in patients allocated a diagnosis of RTI examined with CRP in comparison with patients not tested. In general, the GPs in Sweden adhered to current guidelines for antibiotic prescribing. Phenoxymethylpenicillin (PcV) was the preferred antibiotic for most patients allocated a diagnosis of respiratory tract infection. In conclusion, the use of rules of thumb might explain why current practices prevail in spite of educational efforts. One way to change practice could be to identify and evaluate rules of thumb used by GPs and disseminate well adapted rules. The use of diagnostic tests in patients with infectious illnesses in general practice needs critical appraisal before introduction as well as continuing surveillance. The use of rules of thumb by GPs might be one explanation for variation in practice and irrational prescribing of antibiotics in patients with infectious conditions. / On the day of the public defence the status of the articles IV and V was: Accepted.

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Asthma is a chronic disease of the airways and affects many people regardless of their age, gender, race and socioeconomic status. Since asthma is recognised as one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality in people and especially in South Africa, the prescribing patterns, prevalence and medication cost of asthma in South Africa are saliently important and need to be investigated. A non-experimental, quantitative retrospective drug utilisation review was conducted on medicine claims data of a pharmaceutical benefit management company in a section of the private health care sector of South Africa. The study period was divided into four annual time periods (1 January 2008 to 31 December 2008, 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2009, 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2010 and 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2011). The prescribing patterns and cost of asthma medication were investigated and stratified according to province, age and gender. Patients were included if the prescriptions which were provided by the health care practitioners matched the Chronic Disease List (CDL) of South Africa and the International Classification of Disease (ICD-10) coding for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Data analysis was conducted by means of the SAS 9.3® computer package. Asthma patients were divided according to different age groups (there were five different age groups for this study), gender and geographical areas of South Africa. The study indicated a steady increase in the prevalence of asthma patients from 0.82% (n = 7949) in 2008 to 1.18% (n = 15 423) in 2009 and reached a minimum of 0.79% (n = 8554) in 2011. Analysis of the prevalence regarding geographical areas in South Africa suggested that Gauteng had the highest number [n = 17 696, (0.85%)] of asthma patients throughout the study period, followed by KwaZulu Natal [n = 8 628, 1.16%)] and the Western Cape [(n = 8513, 0.97%) (p < 0.05)]. The prevalence of asthma in female patients [0.89% (n = 26 588)] was higher than in their male counterparts [0.79% (n = 19 244)] (p > 0.05). The results showed that asthma was not as common chronic disease in children. The total number of asthma patients younger than 7 years represented 0.64% (n = 2 909). It was found that patients over 65 years of age showed the highest prevalence of the five age groups [1.94% (n = 13 403) (p < 0.05)]. The average number of asthma prescriptions per patient per year was 8.28 (95% CI, 8.16- 8.40) and 5.15 (95% CI, 5.06-5.23) in 2008 and 2011, respectively. The number of asthma items per prescription varied from 1.55 (95% CI, 1.55-1.56) in 2008 to 1.40 (95% CI, 1.39- 1.40) in 2011. Medication from the MIMS® pharmacological group (anti-asthmatics and bronchodilators) was used to identify asthma medication. The top three asthma medication with the highest prevalence in the study period were the anti-inflammatory inhaler of fluticasone (n = 39 721) followed by the single item combination product of budesonide/ formoterol (n = 25 121) and salbutamol (n = 24 296). The influence of COPD on asthma treatment and the costimplication thereof were investigated. Medication from the MIMS® pharmacological group (anti-asthmatics and bronchodilators) was used to identify COPD medication. This study also showed that COPD had an influence in the economic burden of the South African asthma population. The cost of medication is responsible for the single largest direct cost involved in the economic burden of asthma. This study showed that asthma represented 0.88% of the direct medication cost in the study (excluding hospitalisation and indirect cost). The average cost per prescription and average cost per asthma item both increased throughout the study period. The prescribing patterns for the different medication used in the treatment of asthma were investigated and recommendations for further research in this field of study were made. / MPharm (Pharmacy Practice), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Due to the fact that the function of dispensing is not the exclusive practice of a single profession, there is much conflict surrounding the issue: it forms the crux of the pharmacy profession but it also forms part of doctors’ scope of practice. Separation of the acts of prescribing and dispensing would prevent the interest of the doctor, who has the potential to profit from selling medicines, being placed above the interest of the patient. It would, however, also affect the essential services that many dispensing doctors provide to pensioners, unemployed patients, those not covered by a medical scheme and those in rural areas. The implications of doctor dispensing are not clear as conflicting evidence suggests that dispensing doctors prescribe more medicine items, injections and antibiotics while preferring certain brand names on the one hand but on the other, evidence shows that dispensing doctors dispensed less expensive medicines compared to other health care providers. The main objective of this study was to analyse the prescribing patterns of dispensing doctors and other medicine providers in a section of the private health care sector of South Africa for 2005 to 2008 by using a medicine claims database. A retrospective drug utilisation review was conducted by extracting data from a medicine claims database for a four–year period, from 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2008. The results revealed that dispensing doctors had a lower cost per prescription compared to other health care providers (R112.66 ± R4.45 vs. R258.48 ± R23.93) and also had a lower cost per medicine item (R39.62 ± R2.18 vs. R112.43 ± R7.56) for the entire study period from 2005 to 2008. Dispensing doctors provided more items per prescription compared to other health care providers (2.85 ± 0.05 items vs. 2.30 ± 0.06 items) but other health care providers claimed more prescriptions per patient per year (7.50 ± 1.15 prescriptions vs. 3.29 ± 0.07 prescriptions). A higher percentage of generic medicine items were provided to patients visiting dispensing doctors. Dispensing doctors treated a majority of patients aged above 19 to 44 years of age while other health care providers treated a majority of patients above 59 years of age. Both dispensing doctors and other health care providers treated a majority of female patients and issued a majority of medicine items to treat acute conditions. The results also revealed that dispensing doctors generally provided relatively inexpensive medicine items, including generic and innovator items, for female and male patients of all ages while other health care providers showed the opposite trend and issued relatively expensive medicine items to these patients. However, when analysing the top twelve pharmacological groups claimed, dispensing doctors had relatively higher costs compared to other health care providers for nine of the pharmacological groups (central nervous system, analgesic, cardio–vascular, ear, nose and throat, dermatological, urinary system, antimicrobial, endocrine system and cytostatic). The pharmacological groups contributing to the highest number of medicine items and highest medicine cost contribution were the antimicrobial group for dispensing doctors and cardio–vascular group for other health care providers. / Thesis (M.Pharm. (Pharmacy Practice))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Due to the fact that the function of dispensing is not the exclusive practice of a single profession, there is much conflict surrounding the issue: it forms the crux of the pharmacy profession but it also forms part of doctors’ scope of practice. Separation of the acts of prescribing and dispensing would prevent the interest of the doctor, who has the potential to profit from selling medicines, being placed above the interest of the patient. It would, however, also affect the essential services that many dispensing doctors provide to pensioners, unemployed patients, those not covered by a medical scheme and those in rural areas. The implications of doctor dispensing are not clear as conflicting evidence suggests that dispensing doctors prescribe more medicine items, injections and antibiotics while preferring certain brand names on the one hand but on the other, evidence shows that dispensing doctors dispensed less expensive medicines compared to other health care providers. The main objective of this study was to analyse the prescribing patterns of dispensing doctors and other medicine providers in a section of the private health care sector of South Africa for 2005 to 2008 by using a medicine claims database. A retrospective drug utilisation review was conducted by extracting data from a medicine claims database for a four–year period, from 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2008. The results revealed that dispensing doctors had a lower cost per prescription compared to other health care providers (R112.66 ± R4.45 vs. R258.48 ± R23.93) and also had a lower cost per medicine item (R39.62 ± R2.18 vs. R112.43 ± R7.56) for the entire study period from 2005 to 2008. Dispensing doctors provided more items per prescription compared to other health care providers (2.85 ± 0.05 items vs. 2.30 ± 0.06 items) but other health care providers claimed more prescriptions per patient per year (7.50 ± 1.15 prescriptions vs. 3.29 ± 0.07 prescriptions). A higher percentage of generic medicine items were provided to patients visiting dispensing doctors. Dispensing doctors treated a majority of patients aged above 19 to 44 years of age while other health care providers treated a majority of patients above 59 years of age. Both dispensing doctors and other health care providers treated a majority of female patients and issued a majority of medicine items to treat acute conditions. The results also revealed that dispensing doctors generally provided relatively inexpensive medicine items, including generic and innovator items, for female and male patients of all ages while other health care providers showed the opposite trend and issued relatively expensive medicine items to these patients. However, when analysing the top twelve pharmacological groups claimed, dispensing doctors had relatively higher costs compared to other health care providers for nine of the pharmacological groups (central nervous system, analgesic, cardio–vascular, ear, nose and throat, dermatological, urinary system, antimicrobial, endocrine system and cytostatic). The pharmacological groups contributing to the highest number of medicine items and highest medicine cost contribution were the antimicrobial group for dispensing doctors and cardio–vascular group for other health care providers. / Thesis (M.Pharm. (Pharmacy Practice))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Older people admitted to hospital are at high risk of rehospitalization and medication errors. We have demonstrated, in a randomized controlled trial, that a clinical pharmacist intervention reduces the incidence of revisits to hospital for patients aged 80 years or older admitted to an acute internal medicine ward. The aims of this thesis were to further study the effects of the intervention and to investigate possibilities of targeting the intervention by identifying predictors of treatment response or adverse health outcomes. The effect of the pharmacist intervention on the appropriateness of prescribing was assessed, by using three validated tools. This study showed that the quality of prescribing was improved for the patients in the intervention group but not for those in the control group. However, no association between the appropriateness of prescribing at discharge and revisits to hospital was observed. Subgroup analyses explored whether the clinical pharmacist intervention was equally effective in preventing emergency department visits in patients with few or many prescribed drugs and in those with different levels of inappropriate prescribing on admission. The intervention appeared to be most effective in patients taking fewer drugs, but the treatment effect was not altered by appropriateness of prescribing. The most relevant risk factors for rehospitalization and mortality were identified for the same study population, and a score for risk-estimation was constructed and internally validated (the 80+ score). Seven variables were selected. Impaired renal function, pulmonary disease, malignant disease, living in a nursing home, being prescribed an opioid and being prescribed a drug for peptic ulcer or gastroesophageal reflux disease were associated with an increased risk, while being prescribed an antidepressant drug (tricyclic antidepressants not included) was linked with a lower risk. These variables made up the components of the 80+ score. Pending external validation, this score has potential to aid identification of high-risk patients. The last study investigated the occurrence of prescription errors when patients with multi-dose dispensed (MDD) drugs were discharged from hospital. Twenty-five percent of the MDD orders contained at least one medication prescription error. Almost half of the errors were of moderate or major severity, with potential to cause increased health-care utilization.

This study evaluated the benefits and the problems of implementing the World Trade Organization's decision on the implementation of Paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration by developing country members.

AIM: To conduct a systematic literature review on the existing literature on the prevalence of medication errors across the medicines management system in primary care; To explore the systems of error management in primary care; to investigate the prevalence and nature of medication errors in children, 0-12 years, and in older patients, ≥65 years, in primary care; and to explore community pharmacists' interventions on medicines-related problems. METHODS: 1) Systematic literature review; 2) Questionnaire survey of Primary Care Trusts (PCTs), Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and NHS Area Teams; 3) Retrospective review of the electronic medical records of a random sample of older patients, ≥65 years old, and children 0-12 years old, from 2 general practices in Luton and Bedford CCGs, England; 4) Prospective observation of community pharmacists' interventions on medicines-related problems and prescribing errors from 3 community pharmacies in Luton and Bedford CCGs in England. DATA ANALYSIS: Quantitative data from records review were analysed using Microsoft Excel on data extracted from an Access database. Statistical tests of significance were performed as necessary. Descriptive statistics were conducted on quantitative data from the studies and inductive qualitative analyses were conducted on aspects of the questionnaire survey. RESULTS: • The systematic literature review demonstrated that medication errors are common, and occur at every stage of the medication management system in primary care, with error rates between ≤1% and ≥90%, depending on the part of the system studied and the definitions and methods used. There is some evidence that the prescribing stage is the most susceptible, and that the elderly (over 65 years) and children (under 18 years) are more likely to experience significant errors, although very little research has focussed on these age groups. • The questionnaire survey of PCTS, CCGs and NHSE demonstrated that national and local systems for managing medication errors appeared chaotic, and need to be better integrated to improve error learning and prevention in general practice. • The retrospective review of patients' medical records in general practices demonstrated that prescribing and monitoring errors are common in older patients and in children. 2739 unique prescription items for 364 older patients ≥65 years old were reviewed, with prescribing and monitoring errors detected for 1 in 3 patients involving about 1 in 12 prescriptions. The factors associated with increased risk of errors were: number of unique medications prescribed, being ≥75 years old, being prescribed medications requiring monitoring, and medications from these therapeutic areas: corticosteroid, NSAID, diuretic, thyroid and antithyroid hormones, statins and ACE-I/ARB. 755 unique prescription items for 524 younger patients 0-12 years old were examined, with approximately 1 in 10 prescriptions and 1 in 5 patients being exposed to a prescribing error. Factors associated with increased risk of prescribing errors in younger patients were: being aged ≤10 years old, being prescribed three or more medications, and from similar therapeutic areas as above. Majority of the errors were of mild to moderate severity. • Community pharmacists performed critical interventions as the last healthcare professional defense within the medicines management system in primary care. However, this role is challenged by other dispensary duties including the physical aspects of dispensing and other administrative roles. CONCLUSION Prescribing and monitoring errors in general practice, and older patients and children may be more at risk compared to the rest of the population, though most errors detected were less severe. Factors associated with increased risk for errors in these age groups were multifaceted. The systems for periodic laboratory monitoring for routinely prescribed drugs, particularly in older patients, need to be reviewed and strengthened to reduce preventable hospital admissions. Antibiotic dosing in children in general practice needs to be regularly reviewed through continued professional developments and other avenues. As guidance on local arrangements for error reporting and learning systems are less standardised across primary care organisations, pertinent data from adverse prescribing events and near misses may be lost. Interventions for reducing errors should therefore explore how to strengthen local arrangements for error learning and clinical governance. Community pharmacists and/or primary care pharmacists provide an important defence within the medicines management system in primary care. Policy discussions and review around the role of the pharmacist in primary care are necessary to strengthen this defence, and harness the potential thereof.

INTRODUCTION: The percentage of seniors in the population is increasing worldwide and Europe is not an exception in this case. Geriatric patients create a very specific group of patients in which the risk of drug-related problems is increased due to many reasons. Explicit criteria of potentially inappropriate medications/drug procedures (PIMs) in the aged belong to instruments helping with the evaluation of the quality of drug prescribing to older patients and have been developed in the past decades with the aim to increase the quality of geriatric pharmacotherapy and to minimize the quantity and severity of adverse drug reactions. The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the registration rates and OTC availability of pharmaceuticals from the PIMs list created for the purposes of EU COST Action IS1402 initiative (2015-2018) in 5 countries - Czech Republic, Estonia, Croatia, Poland and Slovakia. METHODOLOGY: Based on the thesis by S. Grešáková, MS, a list of 487 potentially inappropriate medicines/drug procedures in the aged has been created and subsequently also the record table stating the individual PIMs and other requested characteristics that was later filled by research teams of participating countries in the period from December 2016 to April 2017. In each country the following attributes were monitored:...

INTRODUCTION: The issue of care for older patients has recently been discussed more and more frequently. The proportion of older adults in the population has been raising exponentially, especially in the last few decades, so the expectations concerning the extent and quality of geriatric care increases as well. In order to improve the quality of pharmacotherapy in the old age, many tools have been published in the last 25 years aimed at support of physicians in better care for older adults, enabling selection of safer pharmacotherapeutic startegies that respect specific pharmacological, physiological and homeostatic changes in the old age. Consequently, multiple explicit criteria of potentially inappropriate drugs and drug procedures (PIMs) have been published to help clinicians to distinguish pharmacotherapeutic strategies of choice for geriatric patients and oppositely to identify drugs, indications and dosing schedules potentially inappropriate in seniors. The aim of this diploma thesis was to evaluate in the pilot round the registration rates and other issues related to availability of all known PIMs in countries participating in the EU COST Action IS1402 study. METHODOLOGY: Based on diploma thesis of S. Grešáková, MS ("Application of explicite criteria of medications potentially inappropriate...