PHARMACISTS working as integrated parts of the team in GP clinics have "superpowers," according to international expert Dr Kirsten Meisinger from Cambridge Health Alliance in Boston, USA.
Meisinger is a pioneer of the American patient-centred primary care model, and recently visited Australia as part of an ongoing partnership consulting to the WentWest primary health care network in western Sydney.
The US model is a prototype for the government's Health Care Homes initiative, with Meisinger saying practices that had integrated a multidisciplinary team reported improved outcomes and better engagement from patients.
Practice nurses and pharmacists are key, she said, according to a report in The Medical Republic which quoted Meisinger's experiences implementing the model in the USA.
"Add the nurse and it's like you are adding another superpower to the team. Add the pharmacist and you have two superpowers.
"Within one year of adding those visits we had amazing results on things like blood-sugar control...we actually found in the first year more disease than we'd ever identified before, but that's a good thing."
The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia highlighted the report, reiterating calls for the government "to support a large-scale trial integrating pharmacists in general practice, to determine the best approach for an evidence-based model in Australia".
PSA national vice president Dr Chris Freeman said the Society had known for some time about the benefits a practice pharmacist brought to patient care.
"But the growth of this model has been limited to a small number of practices due to the absence of funding - and led to Australia falling behind other countries in terms of this collaborative healthcare approach," Freeman added.
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