Interprofessional care is exhibited in outpatient oncology practices where practitioners from a myriad of specialties (e.g., oncology, nursing, pharmacy, health informatics and others) work collectively with patients to enhance therapeutic outcomes and minimize adverse effects. Historically, most ambulatory-based anticancer medication therapies have been administrated in infusion clinics or physician offices. Oral anticancer medications (OAMs) have become increasingly prevalent and preferred by patients for use in residential or other non-clinic settings. Self-administration of OAMs represents a significant shift in the management of cancer care and role responsibilities for patients and clinicians. While patients have a greater sense of empowerment and convenience when taking OAMs, adherence is a greater challenge than with intravenous therapies. This paper proposes use of a qualitative systems evaluation, based on theoretical frameworks for interdisciplinary team collaboration and systems science, to examine the social interactionism involved with the use of intravenous anticancer treatments and OAMs (as treatment technologies) by describing patient, organizational, and social systems considerations in communication, care, control, and context (i.e., Kaplan’s 4Cs). This conceptualization can help the healthcare system prepare for substantial workforce changes in cancer management, including increased utilization of oncology pharmacists.

Objective: To determine pharmacy students’ impressions of their faculty’s interactions with diverse student and patient populations.Methods: Three student focus groups were convened. Eighty-four page transcripts were coded, and emergent themes identified by qualitative analysis.Results: Students defined diversity as multidimensional beyond traditional categories. Emergent themes were faculty awareness or lack of awareness of cultural diversity, disparate cultural perspectives and preferences within student groups, teaching/learning approaches to prepare students to be more culturally competent, and student group dynamics. First- and second-year students emphasized student-to-student interactions, while third- and fourth-year students emphasized a lack of preparation for the realities of contemporary practice based on instructional methods.Conclusions: Students perceived the majority of their pharmacy faculty to be culturally sensitive and aware, but microaggressions and discrimination from faculty and stu...

Objective. To examine students’ self-perceptions at different stages in a pharmacy curriculum of competence related to serving culturally diverse patients and to compare self-reported competence of a student cohort near the beginning and end of the degree program.Methods. Student perceptions across four pharmacy class years were measured in a cross-sectional survey, with a follow-up longitudinal survey of one cohort three years later.Results. Based on an 81.9% response rate (537/656), scores showed no attitude changes. Reported knowledge, skills, comfort in clinical encounters, and curricular preparedness increased across program years. Fourth-year (P4) pharmacy students reported the highest scores. Scores differed by gender, age, and race/ethnicity. Students in the fourth year scored lower on importance of diversity training.Conclusion. Improved perceptions of readiness (ie, knowledge and behavior) to serve diverse groups suggest the curriculum impacts these constructs, while the invariance of student at...

Marketing authorization holder (MAH)-sponsored patient support programs (PSPs) are a major source of adverse event (AE) reports. The impact of reports from PSPs on the ability to detect AE signals is unclear. The authors compared signal detection performance using data from PSPs vs. non-PSP sources, and between PSPs providing clinical services vs. PSPs not providing clinical services. Data were obtained from an internal safety database for a global pharmaceutical company 2015-2017. The authors assessed whether signals were detected for the reference drug-AE pairs using data from PSPs vs. non-PSP sources, and among different PSP services. Performance was evaluated by four measures including area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC) and time-to-signal detection. While the majority of reports were from PSPs, non-PSP sources were better and faster at detecting signals (AUC 0.63 vs. 0.41, p=0.035; HR 3.52, p=0.014) compared to PSPs. Within PSPs, PSPs providing clinical services were marginally better at detecting signals (AUC 0.60 vs. 0.41, p=0.053) but not faster compared to PSPs not providing clinical services. Reports of AEs from PSPs had worse signal detection performance compared to non-PSP sources. Pharmacovigilance experts should be mindful when using databases that contain reports from PSPs for signal detection.