Pharmacy Daily | Pharmacists lift outcomes

ADDING pharmacists to diabetes primary health care teams can see patients achieve significantly better blood pressure control, according to a study published this week in the Diabetes Care journal. Researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada conducted a randomised controlled trial of 260 patients within several primary care clinics in Edmonton. Where pharmacists were involved they provided medication assessments and limited history and physical examinations, before making recommendations to optimise medication management. Control patients received the usual care from health care teams which did not include pharmacists. Patients treated by pharmacists were “significantly more likely” to achieve a 10% or greater decrease in systolic blood pressure after one year of treatment. The study’s authors concluded that “significantly more patients with type 2 diabetes achieved better blood pressure control when pharmacists were added to primary health care teams, which suggests that pharmacists can make important contributions to the primary care of these patients”.

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