COUNSELING ON THE USE OF PERSONAL MEDICAL DEVICES AND DRUG-DELIVERY PRODUCTS - A TRADITIONAL OR EXTENDED COMMUNITY PHARMACY SERVICE?

The use of personal medical devices (PMDs) and various drug-delivery products (DDPs) is rapidly growing in primary health care worldwide. The aims of the present survey were to assess the attitudes of community pharmacists on counselling on the use of PMD/DDP, and to investigate the connection between self-evaluated knowledge on counselling and the implementation of new extended community pharmacy services regarding PMDs/DDPs. A descriptive cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey using an internet-based eFormular survey platform was conducted in Estonian community pharmacies between May-June 2012. Of the delivered questionnaires (n = 356) 137 were returned having a response rate of 38.5%. More than half of the respondents considered the PMD/DDP counselling services as a traditional community pharmacy service. The majority of the respondents (89.9%) reported a wide public interest in the self-screening of health indicators and in the use of PMDs for these purposes. Only 24.8% of community pharmacists reported having problems in this specific counselling area. Nevertheless, 67.2% of the responders considered their professional knowledge insufficient for providing extended services. There is a clear need to improve the knowledge of community pharmacists in PMD/DDP counselling services, and consequently to support the quality of respective services.