TRAINING pharmacists to provide travel medicine services could contribute to the health of international travellers, researchers from Monash University and James Cook University believe.
The authors conducted a systematic review of the types and outcomes of pharmacist-managed travel health services, published in Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease.
"The pharmacists involved in providing the travel medicine services were qualified with additional training in the field of travel medicine and in most studies the pharmacists hold a Certificate in Travel Health (CTH) from the International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM)," they said.
"In terms of the scope of practice, pharmacists provided the full travel medicines services either autonomously or under a pharmacist-physician collaborative practice protocol or agreement.
"The studies reported a good level of patients' acceptance of the pharmacist recommendations for vaccines, medications, and non-pharmacological advices.
"Consequently, given the rapid increase in international travel and the increased health risks associated with travel, pharmacists could contribute to the health of international travellers' through pharmacy-based travel health services.
"This would provide more access to pre-travel preventive healthcare services at pharmacies.
"However, to implement these services, the pharmacies need to address any challenges in terms of pharmacists' training requirements in travel health, logistical considerations, and the additional resources to run the service.
"In addition, further efforts are needed to expand the legal scope of pharmacists' practice, including prescribing rights and authority to provide full pharmacy-managed travel health services.
"This needs to be addressed by additional legislative changes to enable pharmacists to provide the vaccines, medications, and to order laboratory tests more autonomously."
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