RDP-CP-PP.pdf

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CLINICAL PHARMACY
Syllabus: Introduction to Clinical Pharmacy, Concept of clinical pharmacy, functions and
responsibilities of clinical pharmacist, Drug therapy monitoring - medication chart review,
clinical review, pharmacist intervention, Ward round participation, Medication history and
Pharmaceutical care.
Dosing pattern and drug therapy based on Pharmacokinetic & disease pattern.
INTRODUCTION TO CLINICAL PHARMACY
Definition:
Clinical pharmacy is defined as the branch of pharmaceutical science dealing with utilization
of pharmacist knowledge, skills and judgments related to biomedical and pharmaceutical
sciences, to prove the safety, the cost and the precision of the drug usage in the patient care.
Development of Clinical Pharmacy:
In developed countries like United States of America. Canada etc.
• Clinical Pharmacy has already taken good shape. In India, it is in the infancy stage.
• The role of the retail pharmacist is viewed by many people as simply transferring pills
from a large bottle to a small one - counting tablets, typing labels and calculating the
price.
• Much of his time is seen as devoted to routine merchandising of cosmetics, skin, hair,
dental products, stationery and other commodities which have little or no relation to
health care.
• India stands among top fifteen in the world in pharmaceutical market with respect
to pharmaceutical production, exports, imports etc.
• There is still a need to develop the concept of clinical pharmacy.
• Today there is 'drug-explosion' and 'information explosion' in relation to the drugs.
• On one hand there is development of newer and more-effective drugs and on other hand
their potential hazards of side effects are on rise.

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SCOPE OF CLINICAL PHARMACY:
Clinical pharmacy has emerged as one of the latest branches of pharmacy in 21st Century.
It is where pharmacists deal with various aspects of patient care, dispensing of drugs and
advising patients on the safe and rational use of drugs.
It can also be explained as a part of pharmacy in which the clinical pharmacist provides
patient care that optimizes the use of medication and promotes health, wellness, and
disease prevention.
Clinical pharmacy describes the new role of the 21st Century’s pharmacists. It doesn’t restrict
the role of a pharmacist merely to good manufacture practices, easy procurement, proper
preparation, distribution and control of drug products.
In addition, it also comprises functions necessary to discharge a particular set of social
responsibilities related to proper therapeutic use of drugs in the aspects like prescribing,
dispensing and administrating drugs, documenting professional services, direct patient
involvement, reviewing drug use, education, consultation and counselling.
The aim of clinical pharmacy practice is to ensure the patient’s maximum well-being and to
play a meaningful role in the safe and rational use of the drugs.
These goals are to enable the physician do a better job of prescribing and monitor the drug
therapy for patient. Further, to help the medical and para-medical staff to enable effective drug
therapy.
Clinical pharmacy practice also deals with proper maintenance of the documentation
regarding the medication incidents effectively to maximize the patient’s compliance in
drug use process.
Scope of clinical pharmacy in India
• In hospitals the services regarding clinical pharmacy are of considerable value because
the concerned clinical pharmacist serves as a guide to the physician for safe and rational
use of drugs.
• He also assists to achieve economy in the hospital by planning safe drug policies,
suggestive means of reduction of waste, by preventing misuse or pilferage of drugs.

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• In addition to it the preparation of preventing forecasting future drug requirements of
the hospital, based upon their drug utilization patterns. Therefore, scope of clinical
pharmacy covers areas to foster innovation, improve public health and provide a
knowledge exchange.
• Clinical pharmacist enables rational drug use by providing correct drug information
including the proper utilization of the drugs utilized as drug therapy, along with all the
precautions to be taken as indicated or asked by the pharmacist or the physician.
FUNCTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF CLINICAL PHARMACIST
o Collection of patient data
o Identification of problems
o Establishing outcome goals through a good therapeutic plan
o Evaluating treatment alternatives by monitoring and modifying therapeutic plan
o Individualizing drug regimens
o Monitoring outcomes
COLLECTION OF PATIENT DATA:
Demographics
Current problems
Past medical history
Current medication
Social habits
Relevant laboratory data
Subsequent modifications of therapy plan
IDENTIFICATION OF PROBLEMS:
The data collected can be used to identify actual or potential drug related problems.
ACTUAL: A condition that requires the initiation of a new or additional drug.
POTENTIAL: The patient may be at risk to develop a new medical problem.
These problems may be related to the patient’s current drug therapy, drug administration, drug
compliance, drug toxicity, ADR’s and a failure to achieve desired outcomes by the treatment.

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ESTABLISHING OUTCOME GOALS:
Drug therapy can produce positive outcome:
Cure of the disease
Elimination or reduction of patient’s symptomology
Arresting or slowing of a disease process
Preventing a disease or symptoms
It may also produce negative result, i.e. resulting in disease morbidity and sometimes
mortality.
EVALUATING TREATMENT ALTERNATIVES BY MONITORING AND
MODIFYING
THERAPEUTIC PLAN:
Efficacy, safety, availability and cost of treatment and suitability of the treatment to
the patient should be considered while evaluating.
The risk-benefit ratio factors should also be considered: seriousness of the disease,
complications if untreated, efficacy of drug, ADR’s.
INDIVIDUALISING DRUG REGIMENS:
When more than one therapeutic alternative exists, the following factors to be considered:
• Patient factors: - diagnosis, treatment goals, past medical and medication
history, contraindication, allergies, compliance
• Drug factors: - efficacy, adverse effects, dosage form, cost, drug-drug
interactions
MONITORING OUTCOMES:
The goals are: Cure of the disease, elimination or reduction of patient’s symptomology,
arresting or slowing of a disease process, preventing a disease or symptoms.
But often leads to suboptimal outcomes due to:- inappropriate or unnecessary prescribing or
drug regimen, dispensing error, non-compliance, inappropriate monitoring.
To ensure good monitoring outcomes;

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Regularly should review whether satisfactory progression is made or not according
to the therapeutic plan.
To determine whether original plan should continue or any treatment modifications
to be made or not.
Reviews ongoing progress and provides report to patient’s other healthcare providers.
Should regularly update patient’s medical/pharmacy records with information
concerning patient’s progress.
PHARMACEUTICAL CARE IN HOSPITALS:
Prescription monitoring
Prescribing advice to medical and nursing staff
Medication errors and adverse reaction monitoring
Medication history interview
Patient education and counselling
Pharmacokinetics and therapeutic drug monitoring Hospital formulary
PHARMACEUTICAL CARE FOR THE COMMUNITY:
Participate in health screening
Participate in health promotion and education
Serve as a source of drug and poison information
Collaborate with other health care professionals to develop treatment guidelines
Design and monitor procurement and drug distribution system including storage and
disposal.
BARRIERS TO PHARMACEUTICAL CARE:
Pharmacist barrier
Practice setting constraints
System impediments
Intra professional barrier

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DRUG THERAPY MONITORING
Drug therapy monitoring, also known as Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (TDM), is a
means of monitoring drug levels in the blood.
Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) refers to the measurement and interpretation of
principally blood or plasma drug concentration measurements with the purpose of optimising
a patient’s drug therapy and clinical outcome while minimising the risk of drug induced
toxicity.
TDM involves tailoring a dose regimen to an individual patient by maintaining the plasma
or blood concentration within a particular range.
To achieve optimal drug therapy 3 objectives should be met:
• To attain desired pharmacological effect of the drug.
• To reach the maximal effect in shortest possible time.
• To decrease the risk of toxicity.
TDM is useful in drugs:
• With a narrow therapeutic index.
• Which is highly protein bound.
• Which are liable to interact.
• In which the metabolite might be toxic.
Drug therapy monitoring is an ongoing process in which pharmacists actively review patients’
records, identify and resolve drug therapy problems such as adverse drug events (ADEs), and
communicate with prescribers when problems occur.
Pharmacists educate patients and their caregivers about potential adverse effects and work
with patients to ensure adherence to therapy and attainment of therapeutic goals.

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MEDICATION CHART REVIEW
• It is a fundamental responsibility of a pharmacist to ensure the appropriateness
of medication orders.
• It serves as starting point for other clinical pharmacy activities (medication
counselling, TDM, DI, and ADR).
• Organizing information according to medical problems helps breakdown a complex
situation into its individual parts.
GOALS:
1. To optimize the patients drug therapy.
2. To prevent or minimize drug related problems/medication errors.
PROCEDURE:
The patient's medical record should be reviewed in conjugation with the medication
administration record. Recent consultations, treatment plans and daily progress should be
taken into account when determining the appropriateness of current medication orders
and planning each patient’s care.
All current and recent medication orders should be reviewed.
COMPONENTS OF MEDICATION ORDER REVIEW include:
1. Checking that medication order is written in accordance with legal and local requirements.
2. Ensuring that the medication order is comprehensible and unambiguous, that appropriate
terminology is used and that drug name are not abbreviated. Annotate the chart to provide
clarification as required.
3. Detecting orders for medication to which the patient may be hypersensitive/intolerant.
4. Ensuring that medication order is appropriate with respect to:
a) The patient’s previous medication order.
b) Patient’s specific considerations e.g disease state, pregnancy.
c) Drug dose and dosage schedule, especially with respect to age, renal function, liver
function.

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d) Route, dosage form and method of administration.
5. Checking complete drug profile for medication duplication, interactions or
incompatibilities.
6. Ensuring that administration times are appropriate e.g., with respect to food, other drugs
and procedures.
7. Checking the medication administration record to ensure that all ordered have been
administered.
8. Ensuring that the drug administration order clearly indicates the time at which drug
administration is to commence.
9. special considerations should be given especially in short course therapy as in antibiotics
and analgesics.
10. Ensuring that the order is cancelled in all sections of medication administration record
when the drug therapy is intended to cease.
11. If appropriate follow up of any non-formulary drug orders, recommending a formulary
equivalent if required.
12. Ensuring appropriate therapy monitoring is implemented.
13. Ensuring that all necessary medication is ordered. E.g. premedication, prophylaxis.
14. Reviewing medication for cost effectiveness.
15. Identification of drug related problems.
• Untreated indication.
• Inappropriate drug selection.
• Sub therapeutic dose.
• Adverse drug reaction.
• Failure to receive drug.
• Drug interactions.
• Drug use without indication.

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• Overdosage.
MEDICATION CHART ENDORSEMENT
Another important goal of treatment chart review is to minimise the risk of medication errors
that might occur at the level of prescribing and / or drug administration.
A medication error is any preventable error that may lead to inappropriate medication
use or patient harm.
To prevent potential morbidity and mortality associated with these errors, pharmacists
should systematically review the medication chart and write annotations on the chart where
the medication orders are unclear.
CLINICAL REVIEW:
Clinical review is one of the integral components of medication review and should
preferably be performed on a daily basis.
It is the review of the patients’ progress for the purpose of assessing the therapeutic outcome.
The therapeutic goal for the specific disease should be clearly identified before the review.
GOALS:
The primary aims of the clinical review are to:
• Assess the response to drug treatment.
• Evaluate the safety of the treatment regimen.
• Assess the progress of the disease and the need for any change in therapy.
• Assess the need for monitoring, if any.
• Assess the convenience of therapy (to improve compliance).

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PHARMACIST INTERVENTION
ROLE OF PHARMACIST
A reliable and responsive TDM service depends on team work between nurses, doctors,
pharmacist, scientist and technical staff.
The clinical pharmacist should provide advice to medical staff on the appropriate use and
timing of TDM and assist with the interpretation of results.
In addition, the pharmacist maybe involved in:
• Initial selection of drug regimen:
this may involve decisions about
drug choice, dose, dosing interval, route of administration and dosage form of the drug,
taking into account factors such as sex, age, body weight, race, metabolism status, renal
function, plasma albumin concentration, use of other drugs and laboratory results.
Adjustment of the dosage regimen based on TDM results and the patient’s clinical response.
Assessment of possible causes for unexpected results, such as non- compliance,
bioavailability problems, medication errors, drug interactions or pharmacogenetic variability.
Dose adjustment for patients on haemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis.
Provision of poisons information.

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WARD ROUND PARTICIPATION
A ward round is a visit made by a medical practitioner, alone or with a team of health
professionals and medical students, to hospital inpatients at their bedside to review and
follow up the progress in their health.
Usually at least one ward round is conducted every day to review the progress of each inpatient,
though more than one is not uncommon.
In certain practice settings such as psychiatry, the “ward round” may be conducted away from
the patient’s bedside in a non-traditional fashion, where the team meets elsewhere to review
each case.
Goals and objectives for clinical pharmacists on ward rounds:
As an important member of the healthcare team, pharmacists should attend ward rounds and
clinical meetings whenever possible.
This enables pharmacists to contribute prospectively to patient care through the provision of
drug therapy.
The goals of a clinical pharmacist’s participation in ward rounds are to:
Gain an improved understanding of patient’s clinical status and progress, current planned
investigations and therapeutic goals.
Provide relevant information on various aspects of the patient’s drug therapy such as
pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, drug availability, cost, drug interactions and adverse
reactions.
Optimize therapeutic management by influencing drug therapy selection, implementation,
monitoring and follow-up.
Investigate unusual drug orders or doses.
Assimilate additional information about the patient such as co-morbidities, medication
compliance or alternative medicine use that might be relevant to their management.
Detect adverse drug reactions and drug interactions.
Participate in patient discharge planning.

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Ward round participation also provides many learning opportunities for pharmacists.
It allows pharmacists to see first-hand how drugs are used and prescribed and to see the effects
of these drugs on patients.
With time, pharmacists develop an appreciation of how the patient’s own wishes and their
social, cultural and economic circumstances may influence therapeutic choices.
Even for experienced clinical pharmacists in teaching hospitals, it is very rare to finish a ward
round without gaining new perspectives on some aspect of therapeutics or patient care.
For those involved in academia and research, ward rounds allow identification of cases for
clinical teaching and publication.
Not the least, ward round participation strengthens the inter-professional relationship among
various health professionals, leading to better healthcare practice and research.
MEDICATION HISTORY
A medication history is a detailed, accurate and complete account of all prescribed and non-
prescribed medications that a patient had taken or is currently taking prior to a initially
institutionalized or ambulatory care.
It provides valuable insights in to patient’s allergic tendencies, adherence to pharmacological
and non-pharmacological treatments and self-medication with complementary and alternative
medicines.
Interviewing a patient in collecting the data medical history is called medication history
interview.
Importance of accurate drug history
1.Preventing prescription errors and consequent risk to patients.
2.Useful in detecting drug –related pathology or changes in clinical signs that may be the result
of drug therapy.
3.It should encompass all currently and recently prescribed drugs, previous adverse drug
reactions including herbal or alternative medicines and adherence to therapy for better care
plan.

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Goals
The goal of medication history interview is to obtain information on aspects of drug use that
may assist in overall care of patient. The information collected can be utilized to:
1.Compare medication profile with the medication administration record and investigate the
discrepancies.
2.Verify medication history taken by other staffs and provide additional information were
appropriate.
The following information is commonly recorded:
1.Currently or recently prescribed medicines
2.OTC medication
3.Vaccinations
4.Alternative or traditional remedies
5.Description of reactions and allergies to medicine
6.Medicines found to be ineffective
7.Adherence to past treatment and the use of adherence aids
Information sources
1.Patient
2.Family or caregiver
3.Medication vials / bubble packs
4.Medication list
5. Community pharmacy
6.DPIN (Drug programs information network)
Question to Ask
•Which community pharmacy do you use?

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•Any allergies to medications and what was the reaction ?
•Which medications are you currently taking:
•The name of the medication
•The dosage form
•The amount (specifically the dose)
•How are the taking it(by which route)
•How many times a day
•For what reason
•What prescription medications are you taking on a regular basis or as needed basis?
•What over the counter medications are you taking on a regular or as needed basis?
•What herbal or natural medicines are you taking on a regular or as needed basis?
•What vitamins or another supplement are you taking?
•Have you recently started any new medicines?
•Did a doctor change the dose or stop any of your medications recently?
•Did you change the dose or stopped any of your medications recently?
•Are any of the medications causing side effects
•Have you change the dose or stopped any medications because of unwanted effects?
•Do you sometimes stop taking your medicine whenever you feel better?
•Do you stop taking your medicine if it makes you feel worse?
Pharmaceutical Care
Pharmaceutical Care is a patient-centred, outcomes-oriented pharmacy practice that
requires the pharmacist to work in concert with the patient and the patient's other
healthcare providers to promote health, to prevent disease, and to assess, monitor,
initiate, and modify medication use to assure that drug therapy regimens are safe and
effective.

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The goal of Pharmaceutical Care:
The goal of Pharmaceutical Care is to optimize the patient's health-related quality of life, and
achieve positive clinical outcomes.
A structured approach to achieve these goals:
1) It requires an established patient-to pharmacist relationship.
2) It requires records of medication to be kept and, with the patient’s informed consent,
additional patient specific information to be collected, organized, recorded, monitored and
maintained.
3) It requires patient-specific medical information to be evaluated and, in the case of prescribed
medicines, a therapy plan to be developed involving the patient and the prescriber.
4) It requires the pharmacist to ensure that the patient has all supplies, information, and
knowledge, necessary to carry out the drug therapy plan.
5) It requires the pharmacist to review, monitor, and modify the therapeutic plan in concert
with the patient and healthcare team.
Elements to provide quality pharmaceutical care are:
(1) Knowledge and skills of personnel,
(2) Systems for data collection, documentation, and transfer of information,
(3) Efficient workflow processes,
(4) References, resources and equipment,
(5) Communication skills,
(6) Commitment to quality improvement and assessment procedures.
1) Knowledge and skills of personnel
The implementation of pharmaceutical care is supported by knowledge and skills in the area of
patient assessment, clinical information, communication, adult teaching and learning principles
and psychosocial aspects of care.

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To use these skills, responsibilities must be reassessed, and assigned to appropriate personnel,
including pharmacists, technicians, automation, and technology. A mechanism of certifying
and credentialing will support the implementation of pharmaceutical care.
2) Systems for data collection and documentation
The implementation of pharmaceutical care is supported by data collection and documentation
systems that accommodate patient care communications (e.g., patient contact notes, medical
and medication history), inter-professional communications (e.g. physician communication,
pharmacist-to-pharmacist communication), quality assurance (e.g., patient outcomes
assessment, patient care protocols), and research (e.g., data for pharmacoepidemiology, etc.).
Documentation systems are vital for reimbursement considerations.
3) Efficient workflow processes
The implementation of pharmaceutical care is supported by incorporating patient care into the
activities of the pharmacist and other personnel.
4) References, resources, and equipment
The implementation of pharmaceutical care is supported by tools, which facilitate patient care,
including equipment to assess medication therapy adherence and effectiveness, clinical
resource materials, and patient education materials.
Tools may include computer software support, drug utilization evaluation (DUE) programs,
disease management protocols, etc.
5) Communication Skills
The implementation of pharmaceutical care is supported by patient-centered communication.
Within this communication, the patient plays a key role in the overall management of the
therapy plan.
6) Quality Assessment/ Improvement Programs
The implementation and practice of pharmaceutical care is supported and improved by
measuring, assessing, and improving pharmaceutical care activities utilizing the conceptual
framework of continuous quality improvement.

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PRACTICE PRINCIPLES OF PHARMACEUTICAL CARE
Pharmaceutical care involves the process through which a pharmacist cooperates with a patient
and other professional in designing, implementing, and monitoring a therapeutic plan that will
produce specific therapeutic outcomes for the patient.
Dosing pattern and drug therapy based on Pharmacokinetic & disease pattern.
Dosing pattern or Drug dose frequency is called dosage regimen.
Designing the correct dosage regimen is important for achieving the desired therapeutic
efficacy and avoiding undesired effects.
Because of significant homogeneity among humans, the dosage regimen is calculated on
a population basis.
Despite the same dose of drug, it produces variations in pharmacological response, which is
generally attributed to inter subject variability.
This inter subject variability leads to pharmacokinetic or pharmacodynamic variations for the
same drug administered in the same frequency in different individuals.
Various factors like metabolizing enzymes, interactions (drug–drug, herb–drug, food–drug),
multiple treatments, and dosage regimen affect the drug disposition.
Enzymes regulate metabolism, interactions alter pharmacokinetic or pharmacodynamic
parameters, genetic factors may produce individual variation, etc., hence resulting in drug
disposition, and also transporters are involved in the disposition process. Proteins are the
transporters in drug disposition.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF DOSES
Effective dose: It is the amount of drug which will produce specific intensity of effect i.e.;
either to treat the disease or prevent the disease successfully.
Median effective dose (ED50): It is the amount of a drug which produces the desired
therapeutic effect in 50% of experimental animals.
OR
It is the dose of a drug required to produce a specific intensity of effect in 50% of individuals.
It is measure of effectiveness of a drug.

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Lethal dose: It is the amount of a drug which will kill certain percentage of experimental
animals to whom the drug is administered.
Fatal dose: When lethal dose reaches 100% or LD100 is known as fatal dose.
Median lethal dose (LD50): It is the amount of a drug which is fatal to 50% of the
experimental animals
[i.e.; which kills 50% of the experimental animals]
It is the measure of acute toxicity of drugs
Initial loading dose: In some conditions certain drugs are given in large doses in the beginning
to obtain an effective blood level rapidly, this is known as initial loading dose.
Maintenance dose: After achieving a desired blood level by initial loading dose, smaller
quantity of drug is then required to maintain the blood level, this is known as maintenance
dose.
Loading Dose: Dose = Cp (Target) x Vd
Maintenance Dose = CL x CpSSav
CpSSav is the target average steady state drug concentration
The units of CL are in L/hr or L/hr/kg
Maintenance dose will be in mg/hr so for total daily dose will need multiplying by 24.
DOSAGE ADJUSTMENT IN RENAL AND HEPATIC DISEASE
Adjustment of Dosage in Renal Impairment:
In patient with renal failure, the half-life of the drug is increase and its clearance drastically
decreases if it is predominantly eliminated by way of excretion.
Hence, dosage adjustment should take into account the renal function of the patient and the
fraction of unchanged drug excreted in urine.
There are two additional methods for dose adjustment in renal insuffiency if the Vd
change is assumed to be negligible.

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General Approach:
No change in the desired or target plasma concentration.
Diminished renal clearance but unchanged non-renal clearance.
Unaltered drug protein binding & volume of distribution in the renally impaired patient.
Unchanged drug absorption from the GIT.
Three Major Approaches are:
Dose adjustment based on Total body clearance.
Dose adjustment based on Elimination rate constant or half life.
Dose adjustment in renal failure.
Dose adjustment based on Total body clearance:
The average drug conc. at steady-state css,av is a function of maintenance dose X0 , the fraction
of dose absorbed F, the dosing interval & ‫ז‬clearance Cl T of the drug.
Css,av = Fxo / ClT ‫ז‬
Dose adjustment based on Elimination rate constant or Half-life:
The average drug conc. at steady-state css,av is a function of maintenance dose X0 , the
fraction of dose absorbed F, the dosing interval & ‫ז‬ volume of distribution vd & t1/2 of the
drug.
Css, av =1.44 FXo t ½ Vd ‫ז‬
Diseases are the major source of variation in drug response.
Both pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic of many drugs are altered by disease other
than the one which is being treated.
Disease state:
Renal dysfunction - It greatly impair the elimination of drug especially those that are
primarily excreted by the kidney. Causes of renal failure are hypertension, diabetes mellitus.
Uremia - It is characterized by impaired glomerular filtration and accumulation of fluid and

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protein metabolism. In both the cases the half-life of the drug is increased as a consequences
drug accumulation and toxicity increases.
ADJUSTMENT OF DOSAGE IN HEPATIC IMPAIRMENT:
The influence of Hepatic disorder on the drug bioavailability & disposition is
unpredictable because of the multiple effects that liver produces.
The altered response to drugs in liver disease could be due to decreased metabolizing
capacity of the hepatocytes, impaired biliary elimination, due to biliary obstruction.
Impaired Hepatic blood flow leading to an increase in bioavailability caused by a
reduction in first pass metabolism (e.g Bio availabilities of Morphine and Labetalol have
been reported to double in patients with Cirrhosis)
Decreased protein binding and increased toxicity of drugs highly bound to plasma protein
(e.g., Phenytoin, Warfarin) due to impaired albumin production, altered volume of distribution
of drugs due to increased extracellular fluid (e.g., Rifampicin accumulates in obstruction
jaundice).
Oedema in liver disease may be increased by drugs that cause fluid retention (e.g.,
Acetylsalicylic acid, Ibuprofen, Prednisolone, Dexamethasone).
Generally, drug doses should be reduced in patients with hepatic dysfunction since clearance
is reduced & bioavailability is increased in such a situation.
Renal function determination:
Glomerular filtration rate can be determined by following two methods:
Insulin clearance
Creatinine clearance

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