Prescription understanding among out-patients in government and private hospitals: A cross-sectional study in Lahore, Pakistan.

INTRODUCTION: Like many other countries, Pakistan's healthcare system is divided into the public and the private sector. According to some studies and the mindset of many Pakistani people, private hospitals provide better services than government hospitals. PURPOSE: The paucity of research studies compelled us to compare the understanding of prescription among outpatients of the government and private hospitals since the understanding of prescription by the patient is an important patient care indicator according to WHO. METHOD: A cross sectional study was conducted by virtue of convenience sampling. The study included 365 patients; 182 from the government sector and 183 from the private sector. The study was conducted over a period of 3 months. A structured questionnaire was prepared to gather data that was analyzed using SPSS Version 22.0. RESULTS: Patients from both government and private hospitals got no counseling while only 45.9% of the government hospital patients and 65.9% of private hospital patients were satisfied with the counseling they received. Our study concluded that the role of a pharmacist must be extended besides dispensing only, in counseling and educating patients to reduce the burden on the physicians and hospitals as well. CONCLUSION: It was concluded that although the patients of private hospitals scored somewhat better at answering the questions than the government hospital patients but they failed to hit the benchmark. Their slightly better results were attributed to higher education levels and better socioeconomic status rather than better services of the hospital.

Contribution of pharmacy education to pharmaceutical research and development: critical insights from educators.

AIMS: This article examines the outputs of pharmaceutical education with the development of the pharmacy profession and how that affects pharmaceutical innovation. It also discusses different models of collaboration between the academic and pharmaceutical industry in order to achieve a healthy collaboration between the stakeholders. METHODS: The perspective, experiences and insights of educators from various backgrounds, origin and educational levels were sought regarding the role of pharmacy education in providing pharmaceutical research and development workforce. RESULTS: Many countries around the world are currently undertaking major reforms in pharmacy education due to the changing landscape of health and healthcare delivery. These reforms must be accompanied by robust systems to assure that the quality of educational structures, processes and outcomes will produce competent pharmacy graduates in the future. It is also considered imperative that pharmacy academic institutions should establish collaboration with the drug development units, the pharmaceutical industry and government agencies for sustainability and positive research outcomes. CONCLUSION: Shortcomings in pharmacy curricula need to be addressed and the authors have proposed the 'TARGET' approach for the development of integrated pharmacy curriculum to substantially contribute to pharmaceutical research and development.