Midterm Content Flashcards
What are the 7 steps in handling Drug Information Requests?
- Secure requester demographics
- Obtain necessary background information
- Determine and categorize the ultimate question
- Develop a strategy and conduct systematic search
- Perform evaluation, analysis and synthesis of information
- Formulate and provide a response
- Conduct follow-up and documentation
If a DI request is about a specific patient, what information should you obtain?
- patient name, weight, age, sex
- medical history
- major organ functions
- drug history
- history of allergy or adverse reactions
Where should the search of external information start for a DI request?
Tertiary sources first, then secondary, then primary
What should be included in a written response to a patient concerning a DI request?
- Summary of request and background information
- Response; clarify any terminology and include any inadequacies in findings in the literature
- Conclusion; summarize information and answer the request
- REFERENCES
What are the four steps in investigating drug information requests?
- Understand the diagnosis
- Understand the medication
- Understand patient specifics
- Tackle DI request
What are the desired characteristics of a response to a DI request?
- Timely
- Current
- Complete
- Concise
- Supported by the best available evidence
- Well-referenced
Should you report small effect sizes to patients when giving them a response to a DI question?
Yes, even small effect sizes are necessary information to give to a patient. If there was a surgery with a 97% rate but a 3% rate of major complications, depending on the patient they may make a different decision based on these results
Why is it important to document any DI request, no matter the severity?
- Allows coworkers to facilitate care if you are away
- Allows you to remember other options when “plan A” doesn’t work
- Allows you to remember the case if there is a follow-up later on
- Legal liability
What are the four aspects of a research study that define what method was used and their associated pros and cons?
- Nature of Research - Descriptive vs Explanatory
- Time frame of research - Retrospective/cross-sectional/prospective
- Investigator approach - Observational/experimental
- Type of Data - Quantitative/Qualitative
Define Administration
The giving of a therapeutic agent to a patient
Define Adverse Reaction
Any undesirable or unwanted consequence of a preventative, diagnostic, or therapeutic procedure or regimen
Define Compatibility
Able to be safely mixed, as in the case of blood for transfusion or drugs for simultaneous administration
Define Cross-sectional reserach
- captures data at a single point in time
- useful for determining the prevalence of current rug exposure or health behaviour in a population
Define Drug Information
Integration of locating, analyzing, applying and communicating information concerning drugs, usually for use by the person in a decision making role in patient management
Define Experimental Research
Investigator controls exposures that may influence an outcome of interest. Has 4 components:
- Manipulation by investigator
- Control
- Random assignment
- Random selection
Define Explanatory research
Research meant to explain rather than describe a phenomena
Define Observational research
Investigator does not influence the exposures but tracks their natural course/progression
Define Pharmacodynamics
The study of how a drug acts on a living organism, including the pharmacological response and duration and magnitude of response observed relative to the concentration of the drug at an active site in the organism
Define Pharmacokinetics
The study of action of drugs within the body which can be envisioned more accurately as the actions of the body on an administered drug; includes mechanisms of drug absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, onset of action and duration of effect
Define pharmacology
Field studying the characteristics, effects and uses of drugs and their interactions with living organisms
Define Pilot
Small-scale preliminary studies to see if an intervention is feasible or worthwhile to do a full study on; not designed to draw conclusions from
What are some pros and cons of a prospective time frame in a study?
Pro: investigator controls quantity/quality of data
Con: more expensive and more time consuming
Define quasi-Experimental research
Looks like experimental research but it does not randomly assign subjects to a group
What are some pros and cons to a retrospective time frame in a study?
Pros: quick and inexpensive
Cons: cannot control the quality of data collected
What is the difference between internal and external evience?
Internal - knowledge acquired from formal education and training
External - accessible information from research
What are the 6 steps in the evidence based decision making approach?
- Transformation of a clinical problem into smaller part questions to investigate
- Answer the questions based only on internal evidence
- Find external evidence to answer the question
- Critically appraise the external evidence
- Integrate internal and external evidence
- Evaluate decision making process by considering the process and outcome as opportunities for improvement
What is GeriMedRisk?
Consultation and education service that connects HCPs to an interdisciplinary team of geriatric specialists; focuses on medication, physical, and mental health optimization for older adults
Who might be involved in an eConsult from GeriMedRisk/what is the interdisciplinary team made up of?
- geriatric pharmacy
- geriatric psychiatry
- geriatric medicine
- clinical pharmacology
What is the role of the pharmacist at GeriMedRisk?
- triage consults, coordinate and contribute to recommendations from the team
- provide recommendations on pharmacotherapy
- answer DI requests
- making DI documents to support education
- contribute to research projects
Define Primary literature
Original source of information; authors design their own research study and report on the results collected from their experiment or discovery
What are some strengths and limitations of primary literature?
Strengths:
- cutting edge research
- could be the only source of information on a new drug/rare diseases
Limitations:
- possible flaws in study methodology
- critical appraisal is necessary
- new information means it may take time before wide acceptance occurs in the medical community
Define secondary literature
Describes and interprets, evaluates or analyzes information reported by researchers in the primary literature
Examples: review articles, systematic reviews
What are some of the strengths and limitations of secondary literature?
Strengths:
- many primary resources consulted to write one article on a topic
- aims to collect many/all primary research studies on a given topic
- saves time
Limitations:
- need to examine sources included
- search strategy description and process may be weak
Define tertiary literature
Summarize information from the primary literature and secondary literature
Examples: textbooks, encyclopedias, compendiums, handbooks
What are some strengths and limitations of tertiary literature?
Strengths:
- quick access to primary and secondary literature
- good for getting background info
- easy to use
Limitations:
- chapter length may limit in-depth discussion
- may not be most current (excluding drug databases)
- hard to see if authors used the ‘right’ sources and whether or not they appraised their literature
When would be an appropriate time to consult secondary and primary literature?
New and emerging topics; no consensus among experts; conflicting evidence; question requires further study