Department of Clinical Pharmacy

Practice-Related Research

Given the practice focus and expertise of the Department of Clinical Pharmacy, practice-related research is of considerable interest. A wide variety of practice-related projects are being conducted, including survey research, medication use studies, quality of life and pharmacoeconomic projects, and the development and assessment of pharmaceutical care related services. All of these projects are significant because of their potential to impact positively on patient care.

The improvement of women's health is one area of focus for survey research. West Virginia pharmacists have been surveyed to ascertain the types of services they provide related to women's health issues. Women have been targeted in a survey to identify the types of services that pharmacists should be providing. Research efforts to improve interdisciplinary collaboration among pharmacists and other health care providers are also of interest to the department.

Medication use studies constitute a broad area of departmental interest. They include drug efficacy and toxicity studies, pharmacodynamic studies, and pharmacokinetic studies, among others. Examples of such research conducted by faculty within the department include: determining the effects of antidepressants on body weight, identifying the relationship of obsessive-compulsive symptoms to reading disorders and their potential improvement with treatment, optimizing drug use in premature neonates, identifying genetic polymorphisms in order to predict drug therapy response, the conduct of Phase III trials of various therapeutic agents, evaluating the effects of different estrogen replacement therapies on vascular reactivity, determining the serum concentrations resulting from multiple dosing of syrup of ipecac in order to identify potential abuses, evaluating drug safety for myocardial perfusion imaging, determining the safety and efficacy of therapeutic substitution of controlled-release nifedipine, evlauating the safety of nifedipine for the treatment of hypertensive crises, evaluating gastric decontamination techniques following drug overdose, and identifying managment strategies for hazardous material incidents.

Quality of life and pharmacoeconomic studies are of increasing importance in health care. They allow for the determination of patient well-being as a consequence of therapy and for the identification of the most cost-effective drug therapy to use for medical conditions. Studies of these types undertaken by clinical faculty include: determining quality of life scores in stent placement patients, identifying health related quality of life and therapeutic outcomes in the management of gastroesophageal reflux disease, evaluating the pharmacoeconomics of antibiotic use for otitis media treatment, and determining quality of life issues and the costs associated with respiratory syncytial virus infection in infants and children.

The development and assessment of new patient care related services are an important part of pharmacy practice. Clinical faculty have a great deal of research interest in this area. Specific examples of service related research undertaken by clinical faculty members include: studying methods to screen and monitor depressive symptoms in nursing hme residents using resources and personnel usually found in long-term care facilities, determining the impact on patient care of clinical pharmacists, validating a clinical workload documentation form, developing, implementing, and assessing the impact of a new pharmaceutical care program for hemodialysis patients, and implementing an asthma network in medically underserved areas in which pharmacists will be trained to enhance asthma treatment. A targeted media campaign has also been funded to promote the value of pharmceutical care to West Virginia women.