scholarly journals Risk of error estimated from Palestine pharmacists’ knowledge and certainty on the adverse effects and contraindications of active pharmaceutical ingredients and excipients

Author(s):  
Ramzi Shawahna ◽  
Mohammed Al-Rjoub ◽  
Mohammed M Al-Horoub ◽  
Wasif Al-Hroub ◽  
Bisan Al-Rjoub ◽  
...  

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate community pharmacists’ knowledge and certainty of adverse effects and contraindications of pharmaceutical products to estimate the risk of error. Factors influencing their knowledge and certainty were also investigated. Methods: The knowledge of community pharmacists was assessed in a cross-sectional design using a multiple-choice questions test on the adverse effects and contraindications of active pharmaceutical ingredients and excipients from May 2014 to March 2015. Self-rated certainty scores were also recorded for each question. Knowledge and certainty scores were combined to estimate the risk of error. Results: Out of 315 subjects, 129 community pharmacists (41.0%) completed the 30 multiple-choice questions test on active ingredients and excipients. Knowledge on active ingredients was associated with the year of graduation and obtaining a licence to practice pharmacy. Knowledge on excipients was associated with the degree obtained. There was higher risk of error in items on excipients than those on ingredients (P< 0.01). Conclusion: The knowledge of community pharmacists in Palestine was insufficient with high risk of errors. Knowledge of community pharmacists on the safety issues of active ingredients and excipients need to be improved.

Author(s):  
María Fabiana Jorge

With the outbreak of the Coronavirus there is a new realization of the vulnerabilities of the U.S. drug supply chain. However, while such concerns may have been amplified by the pandemic, they preceded Covid-19 and were well documented before 2020. Indeed, in past years the U.S. Congress held several hearings addressing potential vulnerabilities in the U.S. drug supply chain, in part due to the increasing dependency on China as a dominant supplier of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and some finished pharmaceutical products. These vulnerabilities go well beyond health policy and constitute a national security concern. The article addresses how U.S. trade policy plays a significant role in shaping the pharmaceutical industry at home and abroad and is in part responsible for some of the current vulnerabilities of the U.S. drug supply chain.


Data ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 3
Author(s):  
Irene López-Rodríguez ◽  
César F. Reyes-Manzano ◽  
Israel Reyes-Ramírez ◽  
Tania J. Contreras-Uribe ◽  
Lev Guzmán-Vargas

Quantitative and qualitative data on active-ingredient drug composition are essential information for characterizing near-field exposure of consumers to product-related chemicals, among other things. Equally as important is the characterization of the relationship between one or many active ingredients in terms of the diseases they are prescribed for. Such evaluations, however, require quantitative information at different anatomical levels. To complement the available sources of information on active substances and diseases, we have designed a database with enough versatility to potentially be used in a variety of analyzes. By using information provided by a well-established online pharmacological dictionary, we present a database with 11 tables which are easy to access and manipulate. Specifically, we present datasets containing the details of 12,827 marketed drug products, 40,164 diseases, 6231 active pharmaceutical ingredients and 4093 side effects. We exemplify the usefulness of our database with three simple visualizations, which confirm the importance of the data for quantifying the complexity in the associations among active substances, diseases and side effects. Although there are databases with detailed information on active substances and diseases, none of them can be found in Spanish. Our work presents an option that contributes substantially to obtaining well classified information in order to evaluate the roles of active pharmaceutical ingredients, diseases and side effects. These datasets also provide information about clinical and pharmacological groupings which may be useful for clinical and academic researchers. The database will be regularly updated and extended with the newly available Virtual Medicinal Products.


Author(s):  
Ajeet Kumar Khilnani ◽  
Rekha Thaddanee ◽  
Gurudas Khilnani

<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> Multiple choice questions (MCQs) are routinely used for formative and summative assessment in medical education. Item analysis is a process of post validation of MCQ tests, whereby items are analyzed for difficulty index, discrimination index and distractor efficiency, to obtain a range of items of varying difficulty and discrimination indices. This study was done to understand the process of item analysis and analyze MCQ test so that a valid and reliable MCQ bank in otorhinolaryngology is developed.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> 158 students of 7<sup>th</sup> Semester were given an 8 item MCQ test. Based on the marks achieved, the high achievers (top 33%, 52 students) and low achievers (bottom 33%, 52 students) were included in the study. The responses were tabulated in Microsoft Excel Sheet and analyzed for difficulty index, discrimination index and distractor efficiency.  </p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> The mean (SD) difficulty index (Diff-I) of 8 item test was 61.41% (11.81%). 5 items had a very good difficulty index (41% to 60%), while 3 items were easy (Diff-I &gt;60%). There was no item with Diff-I &lt;30%, i.e. a difficult item, in this test. The mean (SD) discrimination index (DI) of the test was 0.48 (0.15), and all items had very good discrimination indices of more than 0.25. Out of 24 distractors, 6 (25%) were non-functional distractors (NFDs). The mean (SD) distractor efficiency (DE) of the test was 74.62% (23.79%).</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Item analysis should be an integral and regular activity in each department so that a valid and reliable MCQ question bank is developed.</p>


Author(s):  
Zainab Ghazala ◽  
Prakash Kalshetty ◽  
Shrenik Vardhamane

Background: Pharmacovigilance is the science and activities relating to detection, monitoring, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects or any other drug related problem from any pharmaceutical products. The core purpose of pharmacovigilance is to enhance patient care and generate the evidence based information on safety of medicines. The objective of present study was to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practices of the healthcare professionals about pharmacovigilance and to assess the reasons for underreporting of ADRs.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted by administering KAP questionnaire to the healthcare professionals. There were 22 multiple choice questions. Ten related to knowledge, 5 related to attitude, and 6 related to practice. One question was asked to determine the reasons for underreporting of ADRs. The performance in each category was graded as good, average and poor if the number of participants giving correct/positive responses were >70%, 50-69%, <50% respectively. Question no 22 was assessed independently to find out reasons for underreporting of ADRs. Data was compiled and analyzed by descriptive statistics, Chi-square and ANOVA test.Results: The response rate in this study was 62.5%. The study included professors (11%), associate professors (6%), assistant professors (20%), postgraduates (26%) and interns (37%). That there was statistically very highly significant difference of mean score of knowledge, attitude and practice among health care professionals (P<0.001). The performance score with respect to attitude of health care professionals towards pharmacovigilance was good as compared to knowledge which was average followed by practice which showed poor performance (72.5% >51.6% >36.8%) (p <0.001).Conclusions: Awareness campaigns, CMEs, workshops on pharmacovigilance should be conducted regularly such that good knowledge about pharmacovigilance can be imparted which can be moulded into good practice.


2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (05) ◽  
pp. 597-603
Author(s):  
Fatima MUKHTAR ◽  
NOREEN HASHMI ◽  
MUHAMMAD ALI RAUF ◽  
Amna Anzar ◽  
Khurram Islam Butt ◽  
...  

Objective: To determine preferences of medical students for modes of teaching, qualities of a good teacher and assessmenttechniques in medical education. Design: A descriptive cross-sectional study. Setting: Lahore Medical and Dental College, Lahore. Period:January 2011. Material & Methods: All students of third and fourth year MBBS classes were included in the study (n=127). A pre-testedquestionnaire was used for data collection. A 7-point Likert scale ranging from 1(strongly disagree) to 7(strongly agree) was used to determinestudent’s preferences of teaching styles. The data was recorded using SPSS version 16.0. Descriptive statistics were computed. Results: Thepreferred teaching methods for basic science subjects were skills laboratory 88(70%), followed by problem based learning 70(55%) andinteractive lectures 65(51%). The same teaching methods i.e. skills laboratory 101(80%), problem based learning 89(70%) and interactivelectures 79(62%) were also popular for the teaching of clinical science subjects. The least preferred teaching method for both basic 51(40%)and clinical 58(46%) sciences was didactic lectures. The desirable quality of a good teacher was reported as teaching skills 111(87%) and thepreferred assessment technique was found to be multiple choice questions 90(71%). Conclusions: Students prefer the student centredteaching styles as opposed to the traditional approach. Good teaching skill is the most desirable quality of a teacher and most students like to beassessed by multiple choice questions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (01) ◽  
pp. 57-61
Author(s):  
Saeed Ahmed ◽  
Nabeel Qamar ◽  
Naveed Mansoori ◽  
Sajila Bano

Objectives: To find out the students perception on using multiple choice questions as a classroom assessment technique. Study Design: Cross sectional Study. Setting: University of Hail, Saudi Arabia. Period: 6 months from January 2018 to June 2018. Material & Methods: At the end of each scheduled class, students are provided with four MCQ's on the same topic which was delivered in the lecture and 3 minutes were given to solve the MCQ’s. Data was collected from 4th and 6th year MBBS students. A self-structured questionnaire regarding class assessment techniques was also administered, after completion of Surgery and Clinical Skill module. Results: Out of 80 MBBS students, 50% were selected from 4th year and 6th year respectively. Response of most of the students were positive 59 (73.8%) in classroom assessment techniques effects on student discipline. Majority of the student’s 70 (87.5%) respond positive effects on student’s interest to subject and 64 (80%) reported positive effects on student’s assessment. Suggestion about participating classroom assessment technique were found to be positive in 61 (76.2%). Data was analysed by using SPSS version 20.  Conclusion: Student’s perception on using multiple choice questions as a classroom assessment technique was found to be more positive.


Author(s):  
Amit P. Date ◽  
Archana S. Borkar ◽  
Rupesh T. Badwaik ◽  
Riaz A. Siddiqui ◽  
Tanaji R. Shende ◽  
...  

Background: Multiple choice questions (MCQs) are a common method for formative and summative assessment of medical students. Item analysis enables identifying good MCQs based on difficulty index (DIF I), discrimination index (DI), distracter efficiency (DE). The objective of this study was to assess the quality of MCQs currently in use in pharmacology by item analysis and develop a MCQ bank with quality items.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 148 second year MBBS students at NKP Salve institute of medical sciences from January 2018 to August 2018. Forty MCQs twenty each from the two term examination of pharmacology were taken for item analysis A correct response to an item was awarded one mark and each incorrect response was awarded zero. Each item was analyzed using Microsoft excel sheet for three parameters such as DIF I, DI, and DE.Results: In present study mean and standard deviation (SD) for Difficulty index (%) Discrimination index (%) and Distractor efficiency (%) were 64.54±19.63, 0.26±0.16 and 66.54±34.59 respectively. Out of 40 items large number of MCQs has acceptable level of DIF (70%) and good in discriminating higher and lower ability students DI (77.5%). Distractor efficiency related to presence of zero or 1 non-functional distrator (NFD) is 80%.Conclusions: The study showed that item analysis is a valid tool to identify quality items which regularly incorporated can help to develop a very useful, valid and a reliable question bank.


2021 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 1152-56
Author(s):  
Khalid Mahmood ◽  
Asad Shamim ◽  
Muhammad Umair Khan ◽  
Tasneem Alam ◽  
Usman Khalid ◽  
...  

Objective: To ascertain the various aspects directing the undergraduates at Quetta Institute of medical sciences towards anesthesiology as future profession/specialization. Study Design: Cross sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Quetta Institute of Medical Sciences, Quetta Pakistan, from Mar to Apr 2019. Methodology: Study was conducted among final year medical students with the help of a printed questionnaire consisting of 15 Multiple Choice Questions. The questionnaire provided the required database to explore various factors that influence undergraduates to select their future specialization based on demography and specialty preferences. Results: A total of 65 undergraduates completed the response sheet. While 45 (68.8%) participants were females and 20 (31.2%) were males, 62 (95.4%) were single (unmarried or divorced) and had no children 63 (96.9%). Medicine proved to be the most favourate specialty with 20 (31.4%) student opting for it whereas anesthesiology was chosen by 4 (6.1%) students. Conclusion: Anesthesiology still remains a less popular choice among the medical students of Pakistan particularly Quetta Institute of Medical Sciences due to multifaceted factors. Inferior prestige of the specialty was the most significant factor in deciding against anaesthesiology.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Siti Khadijah Adam ◽  
Faridah Idris ◽  
Puteri Shanaz Jahn Kassim ◽  
Nor Fadhlina Zakaria ◽  
Rafidah Hod

Background: Multiple-choice questions (MCQs) are used for measuring the student’s progress, and they should be analyzed properly to guarantee the item’s appropriateness. The analysis usually determines three indices of an item; difficulty or passing index (PI), discrimination index (DI), and distractor efficiency (DE). Objectives: This study was aimed to analyze the multiple-choice questions in the preclinical and clinical examinations with different numbers of options in medical program of Universiti Putra Malaysia. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. Forty multiple-choice questions with four options from the preclinical examination and 80 multiple-choice questions with five options from the clinical examination in 2017 and 2018 were analyzed using optical mark recognition machine and Ms. Excel. The parameters included PI, DI, and DE. Results: The average difficulty level of multiple-choice questions for preclinical and clinical phase examinations were similar in 2017 and 2018 that were considered ‘acceptable’ and ‘ideal’ ranged from 0.55 to 0.60, respectively. The average DIs were similar in all examinations that were considered ‘good’ (ranged from 0.25 to 0.31) except in 2018 clinical phase examination that showed ‘poor’ items (DI = 0.20 ± 0.11). The questions for preclinical phase showed an increase in the number of ‘excellent’ and ‘good’ items in 2018 from 37.5% to 70.0%. There was an increase of 10.0% for preclinical phase, and 6.25% for clinical phase, in the number of items with no non-functioning distractors in 2018. Among all, preclinical multiple-choice questions in 2018 showed the highest mean of DE (71.67%). Conclusions: Our findings suggested that there was an improvement in the questions from preclinical phase while more training on questions preparation and continuous feedback should be given to clinical phase teachers. A higher number of options did not affect the level of difficulty of a question; however, the discrimination power and distractors efficiency might differ.


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