[Characteristics of systematic reviews about the impact of pharmacists]

Abstract

Introduction: The pharmacists' role is varied and numerous articles evaluate the outcomes of pharmaceutical interventions. The main objectives of this study were to establish the characteristics of systematic reviews about pharmacists' interventions that were published in the last five years.

Methods: A literature search was performed on Pubmed for French and English articles published between 01-01-2008 and 31-05-2013. Systematic reviews that presented the role, the interventions and the impact of pharmacists were selected by two research assistants.

Results: A total of 46 systematic reviews was identified, amongst which one third (n=15/46, 33 %) were meta-analyses. A quarter of systematic reviews did not evaluate the quality of included articles (n=13/46, 28 %). Twelve themes were identified. A median [min-max] of 16 [2-298] articles was included per systematic review. The most frequent pharmaceutical activities were patient counseling (n=41 systematic reviews), patient chart review (n=29), pharmacotherapy evaluation (n=27) and recommendations (n=26). The least frequent activities were teaching others than patients (n=12) and medical rounds participation (n=7).

Discussion: Many elements can influence the completion of pharmacy practice research projects; however, there exists no link between the presence of systematic reviews and the importance of pharmacists in a given healthcare program.

Conclusion: This study presents the characteristics of 46 systematic reviews about pharmacists interventions published since 2008.

Keywords: Activité pharmaceutique; Outcome assessment; Pharmaceutical activities; Pharmaciens; Pharmacists; Professional role; Revue systématique; Rôle professionnel; Systematic reviews; Évaluation des résultats.