Background: Drug interactions, which are generally encountered in medical prescriptions, may lead to severe health issues. Pharmacists in both the public and private pharmacy setting are by profession in a unique position to gain and use their competencies to find and prohibit drug interactions. Aim of the Study: To assess knowledge, attitude and practice of pharmacists toward drug interactions in Saudi Arabia. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using a self- administered questionnaire. Results: Two hundred sixty-three pharmacists participated in the survey and results were expressed in frequencies and percentages. The mean age of participant pharmacists was (31.7) years showing a relatively young participant’s population. Males were (75.3%), while females were (24.7%). Majority of pharmacists (67.3%) were working in public sector. Half of them had a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy as their latest academic degree. Participants’ averages of awareness, attitude and practice regarding drug interactions, correct knowledge of drug-drug, drug-food, drug-disease interactions were, (90.7%), (65.3%), (67.7%), (61.7%) respectively. Most (79.8%) of the participants asserted that the notified doctors usually agree with pharmacists’ opinion and decision. This percentage indicates a good cooperation when compared to other studies. Conclusion: Pharmacists’ knowledge about drug interactions was inadequate. Lack of knowledge of drug interactions may lead to improper patient counseling and the appearance of adverse effects. There is a need to improve the knowledge and to uplift the level of awareness of pharmacists about the potential drug interactions that are clinically related.

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is a Gram-positive bacteria considered one of the leading causes of community and hospital-acquired illnesses or public health concerns. Antibiotic resistance in this microorganism is one of the greatest issues in global health care. The use of metal nanoparticles and their oxides is one of the potential approaches to combating bacteria resistance to antibiotics. The antibacterial properties of ZnO NPs against enterotoxigenic S. aureus were studied. ZnO NPs were tested in vitro by agar diffusion test. They resulted in 26 and 22 mm zones of inhibition for a size of 20 nm and a concentration of 20 mM against 105 and 107 CFU/mL S. aureus, respectively. The MIC of ZnO NPs of various sizes, 20 and 50 nm, with 105 CFU/mL was 2.5 and 5 mM, respectively. MIC with 107 CFU/mL was five mM for 20 and 50 nm ZnO NPs. Further, the highest growth reduction percentage, 98.99% in the counts of S. aureus was achieved by ZnO NPs of size 20 nm and concentration of 10 mM. Moreover, the obtained ELISA results indicated a significantly decreased concentration of enterotoxin A with all concentrations and sizes of ZnO NPs. PCR analysis showed a significant effect on sea gene in response to ZnO NPs treatments leading to loss of the gene, unlike the unaffected nuc gene. Moreover, morphological changes and cell shape distortion were detected by scanning electron microscope for bacterial cells treated with ZnO NPs.

Purpose: In this study, we aimed to illustrate the practice of pharmacogenomic services by the physicians in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.Methods: This is a cross-sectional survey conducted to evaluate the practice of pharmacogenomic services by physicians in Saudi Arabia. We used a self-reported electronic survey and distributed it to physicians from internship to consultant, physician specialties in Saudi Arabia. The survey collected demographic information of the physicians and implemented pharmacogenomics in medical care, frequently of the pharmacogenomics items reported in medical care, medications executed the pharmacogenomics. The 5-point Likert response scale system with closed-ended questions to obtain responses. The data were analyzed using the Survey Monkey system. The Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) and Jeffery’s Amazing Statistics Program (JASP), and Microsoft excel sheet version 16 were used to analyze the data.Results: A total of 247 physicians responded to the survey. Of them, 156 (64.73%) were female and 84 (35.27%) were male, with statistically significant differences between them (p<0.01). Most of the responders were in the age group of 24–35 years (162 (65.85%)), with statistically significant differences between all age’s groups (p<0.01). Most of the physicians were residents (61 (24.70%)), followed by interns (56 (22.67%)) and specialists (55 (22.27%)). The average score of items “Physician’s practice of pharmacogenomic services” was 2.99 with high score obtained for the elements pharmacogenomic services in the pharmacy (3.16) and pharmacogenomics services competency (3.08). Most of the pharmacogenomics tests requested or observed with the following medications: antiplatelet medications (125 (50.61%)), followed by antidepressants (113 (46.31%)), and antipsychotics 101 (40.06%). The scores of single-test reliability analysis for McDonald’s ω was 0.843, Cronbach’s was 0.809, Gutmann’s λ2 was 0.845, and Gutmann’s λ6 was 0.848.Conclusion: The practice of pharmacogenomic services by physicians was insufficient in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Therefore, we highly recommend the implementation of the pharmacogenomics practice in medical care. Pharmacogenomics services can help to prevent drug-related side effects and improve the safety and efficacy of medication in Saudi Arabia.

Objective: In this study, we aimed to illustrate the physician’s practice of pharmacokinetics in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.Methods: This is a cross-sectional survey conducted to assess the practice of pharmacokinetics services by physicians in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In this study, we used a self-reported electronic survey questionnaire and distributed to physicians from interns to consultants and specialists in Saudi Arabia. The survey collected demographic information of the responders. Application of pharmacokinetic practice in medical care, often at pre-dose or post-dose levels required in medical care medications requiring the pharmacokinetics services. We used 5-point Likert response scale system with close-ended questions to obtain responses. The data were collected through the Survey Monkey system and analyzed using the Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS), Jeffery’s Amazing Statistics Program (JASP), and Microsoft Excel software version 16 were.Results: A total of 259 physicians responded to the survey, with the majority of them coming from the southern region (98 (39.36%)). among them, 107 (44.96%) were male and 131 (55.04%) were female responders, and there was no statistically significant difference between them (p=0.120). Most of the physicians were residents (74 (29.48%)), followed by specialists (69 (27.49%)) and interns (68 (27.09%)), with statistically significant differences between them (p=0.010). The average score for the practice items for pharmacokinetics services by physicians was 3.24, with high scores obtained for the elements the vision of pharmacokinetics services system (3.76), pharmacokinetics services and medications errors system (3.40), and pharmacokinetics services and quality management (3.34), with statistically significant between the responses (p=0.000). The most of medication that had been requested for blood levels asked or observed were gentamicin 133 (57.83%), amikacin 45 (44.12%), and vancomycin 39 (33.05%). The highest scores of pharmacokinetics services or therapeutic drug monitoring are the clinical pharmacist’s responsibility (4.37) and nurses (4.23). Test reliability analysis of McDonald’s ω (0.829), Cronbach’s (0.774), Gutmann’s λ2, (0.792), and Gutmann’s λ6 (0.880).Conclusion: The practice of pharmacokinetics services was found to be insufficient in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Therefore, we recommend the implementation of pharmacokinetics services in medical care to prevent drug-related morbidity and mortality. Moreover, improving patient clinical outcomes in medical care in Saudi Arabia.

Objective: In this study, we aimed to assess the knowledge of pharmacokinetics in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.Methods: This is a cross-sectional survey conducted to assess the knowledge of physicians about the pharmacokinetics services in Saudi Arabia. It is a self-reported questionnaire distributed in an electronic format to various physicians, including from interns to consultants and specialists in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The survey collected demographic information of the responders and their knowledge of selected pharmacokinetics elements in medical care such as resources of knowledge of pharmacokinetics elements in medical practice. We used 5-point Likert response scale system with close-ended questions to obtain responses. The data were collected through the Survey Monkey system and analyzed using various software such as Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS), Jeffery’s Amazing Statistics Program (JASP), and Microsoft Excel (version 16).Results: A total of 259 physicians responded to the questionnaire. Of them, 107 (44.96%) were male and 131 (55.04%) were female responders, with non-statistically significant difference between them (p=0.120). Most of the responders were in the age group of 36–45 years (91 (37.30%)) and 46–55 years (85 (34.84%)), with statistically significant differences between all age groups (p=0.000). Most of the physicians were residents (74 (29.48%)), followed by specialists (69 (27.49%)) and interns (68 (27.09%)), with statistically significant differences between them (p=0.010). The average score was 3.50 for physician’s knowledge of pharmacokinetics services, with high scores obtained for the element knowledge of the concept of pharmacokinetics (4.12), the concept of therapeutic drug monitoring (3.67), and official standardized form for requesting pharmacokinetics services or drug levels (3.61), with non-statistically significant differences between the responses (p=0.313). The majority of the resources used for pharmacokinetic services by physicians were drug information resources (e.g., Micromedex, Lexicomp, and Epocrates; 128 (52.24%), and medical association literature/guidelines/recommendations (63 (25.71%)). We performed single test of reliability analysis using McDonald’s ω (0.897) and Cronbach’s (0.8878).Conclusion: The knowledge of physicians about pharmacokinetics services was found to be inadequate in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Therefore, targeting undergraduate and postgraduates training and education of physicians about pharmacokinetics is highly recommended in order to improve clinical outcome of patients and to avoid unnecessary economic burden on the healthcare system in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.