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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Myra A. Kleinpeter, MD, MPH, Medicine/Nephrology, Tulane University School of Medicine, 1430 Tulane Avenue, SL - 45, New Orleans, LA 70112, 504-988-5346, mkleinp@tulane.edu and Conchetta W. Fulton, PharmD, Tulane Xavier National Center of Excellence in Women's Health, 1430 Tulane Avenue, EP 7, New Orleans, LA 70112.

Individual patient counseling occurs in a variety of medical settings in the provision of health care at academic medical centers. Despite the collaborative nature of medical practice, health professions education occurs in separate didactic and clinical settings in the majority of schools for medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing and public health. We describe a clinical setting with collaboration between medical and pharmacy schools for clinical rotations with interventions by medical and pharmacy students in an urban, clinical environment.

Patients are required to make more decisions regarding care of chronic illnesses over their lives. Medication usage to manage chronic illnesses increases as a patient ages and develops additional conditions. Medicare has expanded pharmacy coverage to millions of additional patients by including a prescription drug benefit through a myriad of prescription drug programs. Pharmacists have played a role in enrolling many patients in these programs.

Clinical settings were developed for medical and pharmacy students independently in each curriculum. An opportunity developed for educational collaboration in a primary care clinic that would expand services for patients receiving care in this clinic. A component of this collaboration is increasing patient awareness and medication compliance in the clinic population. The overall goal was to improve patient safety in the use of medications in patients with chronic diseases.

Fourth year medical students during an ambulatory medicine rotation under the supervision of attending physicians provided medical care. Pharmacy students under the supervision of clinical pharmacy faculty provided prescription information in conjunction with office visits. Pharmaceutical care activities include the assessment of patients' therapeutic regimen, including but not limited to chart review, recommendations for changes/alternatives, medication consultation, and the dissemination of drug information. Patients are assisted with the obtainment of medications through pharmaceutical industry sponsored medication assistance programs. Women often utilize more health services and are primarily responsible for the health care decisions for their families. This pharmacy counseling resulted in overall improved family medical education and medication safety through clinical pharmacy counseling. Pharmacy students working in collaboration with medical students increased the number of positive clinical interventions and increased medication compliance. Patients benefited from receiving free and/or discount medications from pharmaceutical companies.

The provision of educational materials, review of instruction maximizes medicine's effectiveness, increases compliance, and improves health. This collaborative practice strategy can be duplicated to enhance patient education opportunities to improve clinical outcomes. Educational collaboration may result in enhanced provision of pharmacy services in many clinical environments.

Learning Objectives:

• After participating in the session, learners will be able to identify collaborative clinical activities for pharmacy and medical students.

Keywords: Pharmacies, Access and Services

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation