Objectives: To determine how often general practitioners (GPs) and pharmacists recommend patients obtain information about their medicines via websites and to explore factors that might improve the delivery of written information about medicines to patients. Design: Cross-sectional surveys. Setting: GPs and community pharmacists in New Zealand…

Medication review, a systematic assessment of a patient's medicines by a health care professional, is intended to prevent medication-related harms. A critical element of medication review concerns whether medication review is conducted in a coordinated way. This article draws from a case example of implementing medication review in two surgical…

The approach to building innovative partnerships between academia and the pharmaceutical industry has expanded to investigate collaborations that offer meaningful outcomes beyond discovery and increased productivity. This case study uses a systems thinking approach to guide the process and analyse the outcome of a partnership undertaken by one…

Pharmaceutical chemistry, medicinal chemistry and the drug discovery process require experienced practitioners to employ reasoned speculation in generating creative ideas, which can be used to evolve promising molecules into drugs. The ever-evolving world of pharmaceutical chemistry requires university curricula that prepare graduates for their…

People with intellectual disabilities may be "invisible" to pharmacists. They are a complex group of patients many of whom have diabetes. Pharmacists may have little experience of the challenges faced by this high risk group of patients who may be prescribed high risk medications. This case report details information supplied by Pat, a…

In September 2010, William Weldon, chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman of Johnson & Johnson (J&J), was called to testify in front of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to explain the largest product recall in the 125-year history of the well-known pharmaceutical and consumer products company. This article presents a…

Context: Higher prevalence of chronic diseases and reduced access to other health professionals in rural areas suggest that rural Medicare enrollees will benefit from pharmacist-provided drug therapy services (DTS). Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe non-metropolitan community pharmacy sites in Wisconsin, the provision of DTS at…

In this article, four clinicians respond to the following case vignette: A 12-year-old girl with insulin-dependent diabetes presents for treatment of her newly diagnosed bipolar disorder. How would you address the bipolar disorder pharmacologically, and how would the presence of diabetes affect your selection of medication and clinical management?

A discussion of clinical trials in the pharmaceutical industry describes typical processes and administrative issues, then presents a case in which a foreign pharmaceutical company negotiated with a university for sponsorship of a multicenter clinical trial of a new drug therapy. Problems and important considerations in clinical trials are…