A Pharmaceutical Care Model for Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Pharmaceutical care offered to patients with chronic musculoskeletal rheumatic diseases within a multidisciplinary team approach definitely improves patient outcomes and financial constraints on the patient, their families and the national health system. The main outcome of this research was the development and clinical implementation of medication assessment tool specific to rheumatoid arthritis, RhMAT, providing a quality system loop. The RhMAT was run twice, Phase 1 (at baseline) and Phase 2 (at 12 months +/-3 months) on a total of 78 patients. An adherence rate to the RhMAT was calculated at both phases of the study. Study findings indicate that the total RhMAT adherence rate achieved was 82%, defined as high adherence. At Phase 2, the total adherence rate statistically significantly (p value 0.05) increased to 85% following the pharmacist's intervention. Together with the clinician and the patient, the pharmacist can act on the identified gaps through the RhMAT further improving the quality of service offered to the patients.

Autorentext

Louise Grech is a clinical pharmacist at Mater Dei Hospital and lecturer at the University of Malta, Malta. She is the author of a number of publications including the book "Pharmaceutical Care Issues of Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis" published by Springer in 2016 which she co-edited with Professor Alan Lau, University of Illinois, Chicago.