Pharmacoepidemiology and Clinical Pharmacy Unit

Drug-related problems

Analyses of the drug-related problems (DRP) in inpatient and outpatient settings directed toward the minimization of the impact of DRP in patients as well as the development of the safe medication practices. Main research areas concern:

• DRP management in various health care facilities

DRP are analyzed in inpatient settings offering common as well as specialized health care (standard hospital wards, emergency and intensive care units; geriatric wards; rehabilitation centers), outpatient setting (community and hospital pharmacies), and social facilities (home for the elderly; nursing homes). On of the longterm cooperations is rehabilitation centre where the analyses of DRP and drug administration provided by nurses are conducted.

• DRP and falls
• Analyses of DRP and drug administration provided by nurses

Professional information on medicines

Systematic collection and analyses of information on medicines in relation to clinical practice of health care professionals: medicines information needs in groups of both health care professionals and patients, quality of available information on medicines, information of medicines as a factor influencing patients´ medication taking behavior, etc. These activities are connected with the Drug Information Center for Health Professionals of the Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Kralove and University Hospital Hradec Kralove. Ongoing project:

• Deep analysis of 30-year history of Drug Information Center of the Faculty of Pharmacy in HK and University Hospital HK

Aspects concerning patient´s attitudes to the therapy

Evaluation of various aspects which can influence the therapeutic value including engagement of patients in their treatment regimens. Based on existing models examining patients´ behavior, the research is aimed to:

• Beliefs about medications
• Theory of planned behavior
• Medication adherence

Pharmacovigilance activities and drug utilization research

Some of our research activities are focused on pharmacovigilance in the Czech Republic and Europe, for instance, regulations of pharmacovigilance activities, use and effectiveness of spontaneous adverse-effect reporting by health care professionals as well as patients (or lay people), and knowledge of health care professionals regarding legislation on pharmacovigilance and implementation of pharmacovigilance in medical education.

Our research is based on principles of pharmacoepidemilogic studies concerning prospective and retrospective data collection. Various database sets and self-reported methods are used.