The General Level Framework (GLF) document provides a model to be used in evaluating and upgrading of pharmacists' competences currently used in many countries. This study has several Objectives: To show the adaptation process of the GLF document to the Serbian pharmaceutical work practices and regulations; to illustrate the implementation of the GLF document; to evaluate and monitor the development of pharmacists' competencies. Materials and Methods: The adaptation, analysis, validation and adjustment of the GLF document were conducted using the expert panel method. The implementation was conducted on a sample of pharmacists employed in Subotica Pharmacy chain. Later, the evaluation of the pharmacists' competencies was performed at two observation points (at the beginning of the study and after 6 months) by the team of seven GLF members. Results and Discussion: The GLF document was reviewed by 14 members of the expert panel. During the content validation performed at the expert panel meeting, all competencies stated in the GLF document were rated according to their importance with an average grade of between 8.26 and 9.80 and thus reached a consensus regarding all 26 competencies. During the evaluation of the pharmacists' competences, the greatest improvement after the second observation was noted in the "Patient consent" competency, followed by the "Drug history", "The prescription is legal", "Health needs", "Provision of written information" and "Assessing outcomes of contributions" competencies. All the competencies in the GLF document were accepted for the implementation in the Subotica Pharmacy chain. Six of the competencies there was a significant improvement observed.

Community pharmacists expanded their roles and engaged in vaccination services in many countries around the world, but not in Balkan countries. This research aimed to assess the perceptions of pharmacists on involvement in the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine administration in four Balkan countries (Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, and Serbia). A cross-sectional survey was conducted using an online questionnaire that was distributed to community pharmacists across these countries between February and March 2021. A total of 636 community pharmacists were included in the analysis of the survey. The willingness to administer vaccines for COVID-19 (or other vaccines well established in the practice, like a flu vaccine) in community pharmacies is significantly different among the countries: the pharmacists from Albania were more willing to administer vaccines. The factors associated with the eagerness to vaccinate are almost the same among the countries: the lack of training in the faculty classes and the lack of a special place where to administer vaccines. Additional significant factors were found in Bulgaria (pharmacists from independent pharmacies wanted more than the pharmacists working in chain pharmacies to administer vaccines) and in Serbia (male pharmacists agreed more with administering vaccines than female pharmacists). Further national reforms are needed for adopting the expanding role of community pharmacists.

Up until now, the specific mechanisms involved in doxorubicin (DOX)-induced cardiotoxicity have not been fully elucidated. Since thiamine deficiency is associated with myocardial dysfunction and it may lead to cardiomyopathy, we aimed to investigate whether thiamine (Vitamin B1) treatment provides cardioprotection and modulates DOX mediated subchronic cardiotoxicity as well as to determine possible mechanisms of its effects. The study involved 48 Wistar albino rats divided into four groups: healthy non-treated rats and healthy rats treated with thiamine and DOX rats without treatment and DOX rats treated with thiamine. DOX was applied as a single i.p.injection (15mg/kg), while thiamine treatment lasted 7days (25mg/kg/dayi.p.). Before and after the treatment hemodynamic changes were monitored in vivo by echocardiography. When the protocol was completed, animals were sacrificed and rat hearts were isolated in order to evaluate parameters of cardiac oxidative stress [superoxide anion radical-O2−, hydrogen peroxide-H2O2, nitric oxide-NO−, index of lipid peroxidation-thiobarbituric acid (TBA) reactive substances (TBARS), superoxide dismutase – SOD, catalase (CAT), and reduced glutathione-GSH] and apoptosis (Bax, Bcl-2, caspases). DOX treatment significantly reduced the ejection fraction, while thiamine treatment led to its minor increase in the DOX-treated group. In that sense, heart oxidative stress markers were significantly increased in DOX-treated rats, while therapeutic dose of thiamine decreased the levels of free radicals. Our study demonstrated the promising ameliorative effects of thiamine against DOX-induced cardiotoxicity through modulation of oxidative stress, suppression of apoptosis, and possibility to improve myocardial performance and morphometric structure of rats` hearts.

GbCF might be considered as an instrument for the competencies' evaluation/selfevaluation and their improvement, accordingly.