OCTOBER 2022 – The Canadian Foundation for Pharmacy is thrilled to announce four Innovation Fund grant recipients for 2022: Kelly Grindrod, Karen Riley, Amy Tran and Ricky Turgeon. Award recipients will receive a total of more than $111,000Â from the Foundation to support research initiatives targeting various aspects of pharmacy practice.
Evaluating the impact of computer-based education for point-of-care testing
Kelly Grindrod, associate professor at the University of Waterloo, and her team will assess the effect of computer-based education (CBE) on the amount of point-of-care testing performed by pharmacists in Ontario. Over the next year, this study will determine if an inexpensive scalable CBE intervention—using the Pharmacy5in5 platform—is an effective strategy to improve pharmacist behaviour in point-of-care testing. To date, evaluation of CBE use among healthcare professionals has been primarily focused on physicians and nurses.
An electronic tool to identify drug-related issues during medication reviews
Karen Riley, clinical pharmacist at Hogan Pharmacy in Sarnia, Ontario, and her team will compare the average number of potential drug-related problems that are flagged when community pharmacists use electronic screening tools (ESTs) during medication reviews (MRs) versus usual practices. The goal is to determine whether an EST can improve not only the quality of pharmacist-led MRs, but also the efficiency. The study will also collect data to determine if an EST saves pharmacist’s time completing a medication review and whether it could also be a potential educational tool to easily identify drug-related problems.
Improving care and collaboration for Parkinson’s Disease
Currently, there are no existing tools for frontline providers to help guide patient education and counselling for Parkinson’s Disease. Pharmacist Amy Tran of Parkinson Wellness Projects in Victoria, B.C., and her team aim to identify areas of drug therapy where individuals with Parkinson’s encounter challenges and require guidance, and then create a toolkit for pharmacists to help them better educate and counsel these patients. In turn, community pharmacists will have resources to better bridge the gaps in care that individuals with PD are currently experiencing.
Pharmacy-led pilot for optimizing heart failure medication
Despite ample evidence that medications improve outcomes in heart failure (HF) patients, few Canadians are receiving optimal pharmacotherapy. Recent evidence shows that pharmacist-led medication optimization was linked to improved use of recommended medications for HF. University of British Columbia Assistant Professor and Clinical Pharmacy Specialist Ricky Turgeon and his team will lead an 18-month pilot to determine the feasibility and design of a definitive, large-scale randomized control trial using pharmacist-led, remotely administered intervention to optimize heart failure with reduced rejection fraction (HFrEF) medications—with the ultimate aim that pharmacists become part of a multidisciplinary team for HR patients.
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