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. 2021 Jan;17(1):1799-1806.
doi: 10.1016/j.sapharm.2020.07.003. Epub 2020 Jul 4.

Role of pharmacist during the COVID-19 pandemic: A scoping review

Marília Berlofa Visacri  1 , Isabel Vitória Figueiredo  2 , Tácio de Mendonça Lima  3
Affiliations

Role of pharmacist during the COVID-19 pandemic: A scoping review

Marília Berlofa Visacri et al. Res Social Adm Pharm. 2021 Jan.

Abstract

Background: Since the start of the new Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in December 2019, pharmacists worldwide are playing a key role adopting innovative strategies to minimize the adverse impact of the pandemic.

Objectives: To identify and describe core services provided by the pharmacist during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: A literature search was performed in MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, and LILACS for studies published between December 1st, 2019 and May 20th, 2020 without language restriction. Studies that reported services provided by pharmacists during the COVID-19 pandemic were included. Two independent authors performed study selection and data extraction with a consensus process. The pharmacist's intervention identified in the included studies were described based on key domains in the DEPICT v.2.

Results: A total of 1189 records were identified, of which 11 studies fully met the eligibility criteria. Most of them were conducted in the United States of America (n = 4) and China (n = 4). The most common type of publication were letters (n = 4) describing the workplace of the pharmacist in hospitals (n = 8). These findings showed the different roles of pharmacists during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as disease prevention and infection control, adequate storage and drug supply, patient care and support for healthcare professionals. Pharmacists' interventions were mostly conducted for healthcare professionals and patients (n = 7), through one-to-one contact (n = 11), telephone (n = 6) or video conference (n = 5). The pharmacists' main responsibility was to provide drug information for healthcare professionals (n = 7) as well as patient counseling (n = 8).

Conclusions: A reasonable number of studies that described the role of the pharmacists during the COVID-19 pandemic were found. All studies reported actions taken by pharmacists, although without providing a satisfactory description. Thus, future research with more detailed description as well as an evaluation of the impact of pharmacist intervention is needed in order to guide future actions in this and/or other pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; Pharmaceutical services; Pharmacists; Review.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Study selection flowchart through literature search.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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