A survey of compounding pharmacies found variability in overall compounding practices and training and in practices specifically related to compounding preparations of caffeine citrate.
The rising prevalence and health burden of diabetes mellitus require that new approaches for prevention among high-risk populations be evaluated. Emerging evidence from the prospective evaluations of secondary and tertiary outcomes and from retrospective evaluations in randomized controlled trials suggests that angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin II type 1 receptor blockers (ARBs) may reduce the occurrence of new-onset diabetes. Therefore, we each independently searched MEDLINE for randomized controlled trials from January 1966-October 2005 that used an ACE inhibitor or ARB as a primary intervention versus a control group not receiving an ACE inhibitor or ARB and that reported the occurrence of diabetes. Thirteen trials were identified. In each of the 13 studies, the frequency of diabetes in the ACE inhibitor or ARB groups was lower than that in the control groups. In addition, it was consistent in that no study significantly excluded any benefit from ACE inhibitors or ARBs on the rate of new-onset diabetes. The combined occurrence of new-onset diabetes in all 13 studies was 2249 cases among 31,283 patients (7.2%) in the ACE inhibitor or ARB group versus 3230 cases among 35,988 patients (9.0%) in the control group. The combined relative risk of diabetes was 0.80, with a 95% confidence interval of 0.76-0.84, based on a two-sided alpha of 0.05, in favor of ACE inhibitors and ARBs. This observation needs to be confirmed by randomized controlled trials with the frequency of diabetes as the primary prospective end point.
Pharmacists are the most accessible healthcare professionals to the public, yet have the least amount of information from the electronic health record available to them. This lack of information makes ensuring that patients are receiving proper medications and monitoring for efficacy and safety a challenge, if not impossible in some situations. Having access to a national electronic health record would provide pharmacists with this needed information to truly engage with prescribers as fellow clinical experts in the field. Sharing prescription information for non-controlled substances would also decrease the likelihood of a patient receiving duplicative therapy from two prescribers or pharmacies that may not know what the other is doing. There are already examples of successful national data sharing including the Prescription drug Monitoring Program for controlled substances as well as the Veterans Affairs healthcare system. Therefore, our profession needs to push for nationwide access to patient electronic health records, which includes all healthcare providers. This will facilitate the inclusion of pharmacists in the optimization of the care of patients who need our expertise in managing their medication regimens as well as build better relationships with prescribing providers.
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