Health care delivery is changing rapidly and that brings new opportunities for error, according to a speaker at the 34th midyear clinical meeting of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), held in Orlando, Florida, from December 5 to 9, 1999. Almost 16,500 people gathered at the Orange County convention centre for the meeting, including participants from 35 countries. This three-page report, contributed by Laurence Goldberg (consultant pharmacist) and Christine Clark (medical writer) looks at some of the topics covered
A wide variety of topics were covered at the international poster forum where UK authors were well represented.
A theatre top-up service saved £144,000 in a full year according to Ms Jayne Snee (Leicester Royal Infirmary), recipient of the AAH hospital pharmacy technician award. Managers, nurses and clinicians working within the operating department had welcomed the new, technician-operated service.
Ms Jenni Reeves (Northern general hospital, Sheffield) showed how problem-based learning both improved pharmacists' knowledge of adverse drug reactions and their reporting rates, compared with didactic teaching.
The risks to a foetus from undiagnosed maternal pulmonary embolism or renal dysfunction outweighed the risks of radiation damage from lung or kidney imaging, concluded Dr Maria Palmer (Bristol general hospital). In a study using pregnant guinea pigs she had shown that the rate of transfer of three radiopharmaceuticals was low and would result in low foetal radiation doses.
Cisapride appeared to be as effective as H2 antagonists in non-ulcer dyspepsia, according to a meta-analysis of randomised trials performed by Dr Vijay Shukla and colleagues (Canadian co-ordinating office for health technology assessment). However, a more detailed analysis showed that the effect size was strongly influenced by several factors, including systematic bias in studies, lack of validated outcome measures and clinical heterogeneity.
New opportunities for error in health delivery systems
Performance enchancing drugs in sport
Automated despensing
ISMP honours UK pharmacists
ASHP news