 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||||
Assistant Professor, Department of Social Pharmacy, Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Prof. Gama Pinto, 1649-003 Lisboa, Portugal, fax 00351217946455
Full Professor, Head of Department, Department of Social Pharmacy Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lisbon
Published Online, April 24, 2007. www.theannals.com, DOI 10.1345/aph.1H129a
The authors said that there is very little pharmacy practice research being conducted by Portuguese universities. This is true when comparing Portugal with other European countries, such as the Netherlands and other northern countries, as well as the UK, within which research centers were established before the 1990s. It should be noted that academic studies conducted in these are not necessarily performed to inform readers of health policies or influence pharmacy practice, but to present a reliable description of pharmacy practice.
The article refers to the excellent work being done by colleagues from the University of Coimbra, with Master's and PhD degree work in progress. However, it is rather odd that no mention was made of the University of Lisbon's published theses and ongoing research in the pharmacy practice field. There have been 8 completed Community Pharmacy MSc dissertations, while 10 other MSc theses are in the process of being completed. Some of this work from researchers within the department has been published as full research papers in peer-reviewed national and international journals, as cited by Costa et al. However, their reference list is incomplete, since the department had authored 5 research articles in pharmacy practice as of October 2006. Two of these articles are not available through the major Web search engines and online catalogues, such as PubMed. Nonetheless, they have been published in relevant national journals that are certainly known to Costa et al.
The number of abstracts presented at international conferences and workshops as posters and oral communications in clinical pharmacy and pharmacy practice surpasses 50. Many are also indexed in electronic databases.
The lack of the authors' rigor in collecting their information was somehow unexpected. The Portuguese National Association of Pharmacists (ANF) has done considerable investigation of community pharmacy services, with very interesting results. Limited reporting of this was even more surprising, given the ongoing collaboration between ANF and the Lisbon Faculty of Pharmacy for pharmaceutical care research projects, as well as other ongoing collaboration.
It is well known that pharmacy practice and services research comprises many topics, including medicines and their usage, as well as social, behavioral, and administrative issues. Outcomes and intervention research are a priority at our department. Presently, there are 2 PhD pharmacy practice studies in progress, one exclusively in community pharmaceutical care that is analyzing global cardiovascular risk. This is a cooperative project that involves other institutions and academic centers, such as the University of Coimbra and the Portuguese Cardiac Foundation Center Region.
Our department has a strong interest in community pharmacy services research. This is supported by 3 doctorate researchers through projects' supervision as well as their own investigation. In fact, the department has 2 articles in press: one on pharmaceutical care and another on community pharmacy practice research, with at least 2 more expected to be submitted in 2007.
It is the wish of the Social Pharmacy Department at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lisbon, to further develop pharmacy practice and pharmaceutical care research, initiating new collaborations with valuable healthcare organizations as well as strengthening and expanding the ongoing collaborations with pharmaceutical and nonpharmaceutical parties.
Footnotes
Comments on articles previously published are submitted to the authors of those articles. When no reply is published, either the author chose not to respond or did not do so in a timely fashion. Comments and replies are not peer reviewed.–ED.
References
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
