CFP/AFCP award winner researches DTP risks

SEPTEMBER 2016 – Pharmacist Robert Pammett and his team set out to determine if a short screening questionnaire conducted in the community pharmacy setting could identify patients at high risk for drug therapy problems (DTPs).

Their theory proved successful and the research, published in the Journal of Human Pharmacology and Drug Therapy, earned Pammett this year’s CFP/AFPC Graduate Student Award. 

For the study, patients in three community pharmacies in Saskatoon completed a self-administered screening questionnaire and underwent a blinded, comprehensive medication assessment with a clinical pharmacist.  

The DTPs identified were put in one of eight categories, such as unnecessary, inappropriate drug therapy or adverse drug reaction. They were also assigned a severity of mild, moderate or severe.  

Given that 37% of those who filled out the questionnaire were high risk for DTPs, Pammett and his team concluded that these kinds of screening questionnaires were a reliable way to identify patients at high risk for DTPs in the community pharmacy.

As the Research and Development Pharmacist, Primary Care, at Northern Health (in partnership with the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of British Columbia), Pammett maintains a clinical practice in a variety of primary care settings. He also continues to focus his research studies on the pharmacist’s role in primary care. Read more about the study.