Physician pharmacist collaborative management: An inter-disciplinary & inter-professional patient care approach

Abstract

With advancement in healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, a team based patient centered approach is must. The presence of pharmacists in the inter-professional care team imparts positive impact on patient’s recovery, healthcare cost and selection of regimens especially with chronic diseases. “Physician pharmacist collaborative management” model in primary care settings shown better efficacy with chronic diseases such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus and asthma. A collaborative healthcare approach demands sharing of responsibility amongst individuals, quick decision making, data access rights, coordinated planning and interventions according to necessity in each clinical care cycle. The pharmacist’s as a healthcare professionals take care of safe, appropriate and cost-effective use of medications.
The interdependency arises from common ground and goal in physician pharmacist collaboration is focusing a motto of “healthier patient need.” India with more than sixth of the world’s population is witnessing rapid epidemiological shift towards chronic non-communicable diseases along with socio-economic development. The National Health Policy of India aims to reduce the premature mortality from non-communicable disease by one-third by 2030. Clinical pharmacists working in clinical setups of India shown efficacy in reducing mortality, morbidity, and adverse drug events health care costs.
The qualified pharmacist in collaboration with healthcare team helps in preventing disease progression and monitoring use of medication in order to ensure safe and effective drug therapy regimens. Few challenges such as Inadequate access to basic healthcare services, shortage of medical professionals, quality assurance system and health funding affect the
implementation of collaborative care approach.