Pharmacist activities for persons with intellectual disabilities: a scoping review
Authors: Catherine Lee, Caitlin Carter, Tejal Patel
Presentation Date: Sunday, November 17, 2019
Location: 47th NAPCRG Annual Meeting Toronto, ON.
The usability, acceptability and functionality of smart oral multidose dispensing systems for medication adherence: a scoping review
Authors: Sadaf Faisal, Catherine Lee, Caitlin Carter, Tejal Patel
Presentation Date: Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Location: OPEN 2019 Summit, Faculty Club, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON.
Librarian as course collaborator: an embedded model of information literacy instruction for first-year pharmacy students
Authors: Caitlin Carter, Sherilyn Houle
Presentation Date: Saturday, June 16, 2018
Location: Canadian Health Libraries Association Conference, St. John's, NFLD.
Introduction: Over the past decade, there has been an increase in the number of academic librarians' pursuing embedded approaches to teaching in specific courses, as opposed to teaching 'one-shot' instructional sessions. The published literature includes examples from the University of Arizona's Health Sciences Library, Duke University's Medical Center Library, and many others. Becoming 'embedded' into a course involves close collaboration with faculty and includes duties like content development, lecturing, assignment creation and grading, as well as maintaining an online presence via a course management system. This poster outlines a librarian's role in collaborating with a faculty member on delivering IL instruction in a first-year pharmacy course. Description: The School of Pharmacy undergraduate curriculum includes a required, first-year course called 'Introduction to Drug Information Fundamentals.' The librarian develops and delivers 4 lectures on topics in information literacy and evidence-based medicine, in addition to creating and grading a PubMed searching quiz and questions for the midterm. The faculty member instructs on interpreting biostatistics and performing critical appraisal, in addition to developing and grading course assignments. Outcomes: Feedback was gathered from students using Top Hat and Evaluate and was mostly positive. Performance on course requirements illustrates the level of student success in the course. Discussion: Becoming embedded into a course is a very enriching experience for a librarian. Not only does it provide librarians with the opportunity to showcase their IL skills, but it facilitates relationship building with faculty and students, as well as a better understanding of student information needs. DOI:https://doi.org/10.29173/jchla29379
Electronic medication adherence technologies - classification to guide use in older adults
Authors: Maheen Farooqi, Caitlin Carter, Tejal Patel
Presentation Date: Sunday, June 4, 2017
Location: Canadian Pharmacists Conference, Quebec City, QC.
Objectives: Medication non-adherence in the older adult population can be attributed to several factors (e.g. physical and cognitive functioning). Technologies available to address medication adherence range from alarms integrated into pill boxes to cloud based pill dispensers that remotely connect the patient to caregivers and care providers. This project aimed to systematically find and classify available electronic medication adherence technologies (EMATs) and to determine how these EMATs would impact adherence based on specific factors. Methods: A Google search was conducted to identify EMATs available to Canadians. Additionally, websites of common suppliers were searched (e.g. Amazon, eBay, ePill). A supplementary search of PubMed, Embase, IPA and Scopus was also conducted. Each EMAT was classified by reviewing the description, obtaining the device and/or in discussion with the manufacturer. A preliminary scale was developed to assess the impact of EMAT on adherence, based on patient specific factors (e.g. physical and cognitive limitation, complexity of medications), impact on caregiver stress, availability of remote monitoring, and safety. Results: The Google search revealed 344 results, of which 40 were relevant to the present project. A total of 80 EMATs were identified and classified as Automatic Pill Dispensers (APDs; n=28), Pill Boxes with Alarms (PBA; n=31), Vibrating Pill Box (VPB; n=3), Electronic Blister Pack (EBP; n=5), Reminder Alarms (RA; n=6), Clock Caps (CC; n=4), or Smart Caps (SC; n=3). APDs, PBAs, VPBs, EPBs, and CCs were thought to improve adherence in older adults with cognitive limitations,improve caregiver stress, and worsen adherence in persons with physical limitations. SCs would likely make no difference on adherence impacted by physical limitations, but may improve caregiver stress. Conclusion: A significant number of EMATs are available to assist the older adult population with medication adherence. Our comprehensive EMATs list and scale will enable clinicians to recommend an EMAT based on patient specific limitations and needs.