ABSTRACT
Background: The delivery of pharmaceutical care - and what that means - has been at the centre of many transformations of the pharmacy profession in the last century. Today, the exponential growth of pharmacies which provide pharmaceutical care exclusively online has placed increased scrutiny on the quality of the care they provide. Aim: As more patients are managed by remote pharmaceutical care (via medicines delivery services), we sought to critically evaluate this service to identify new research directions. Methods: The COnsolidated criteria for REporting Qualitative research and Standards for reporting qualitative research guideline provided the methodological framework throughout this process. Results: We reveal that although home delivery services ensure that many patients have access to their medicines, it may reduce time available to provide comprehensive pharmaceutical care, particularly in traditional brick-and-mortar pharmacies. Conclusion: We highlight a critical need for research in this area and suggest a variety of research directions: is remote pharmaceutical care a matter of convenience? Does remote pharmaceutical care help patients adhere to their medicines? How do digital health innovations impact care across patient demographics? What does comprehensive pharmaceutical care mean for patients?
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Pakistan has vaccinated over 122 million people. The two vaccines in widespread use are inactivated (BBIBP-CorV & Sinovac) and mRNA forms (BNT162b2 & mRNA-1273). The primary aim of this study was to compare these two forms of vaccines against unvaccinated individuals collectively and then to see which one is more efficacious. METHODS: Case-control study design was used to compare the efficacy of inactivated and mRNA vaccines against symptomatic infection, hospitalisations and mortality due to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 between vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. We derived recovery time from illness for both vaccines. Furthermore, we also compared the vaccines against similar parameters (symptomatic disease, hospitalisations and mortality). We calculated crude odds ratios for each dependent variable. p value of 0.05 or below was considered significant. RESULTS: Vaccinated individuals were significantly protected from hospitalisations and mortality compared to unvaccinated individuals (p < 0.001). There was no difference in protection from symptomatic disease (p = 0.28), hospitalisations (p = 0.59) and mortality (p = 0.53) between two forms of vaccines. mRNA vaccine had better recovery time than all other vaccines (p < 0.001). DISCUSSION: Our study showed that vaccinated individuals are at low risk of hospitalisations and mortality even without a booster and both vaccine forms are equally effective at preventing hospitalisations and mortality.
