Evaluation of the Utilization of Medication Profiles For the Purpose of Drug-Drug Interaction Surveillance by Pharmacists in a Community Setting

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of community pharmacists in monitoring drug-drug interactions with the use of medication profiles. A random sample of pharmacies was visited to obtain information on the type of record system maintained and demographic and attitude data from the practitioners. A trained shopper then visited each pharmacy twice, first with a prescription for Coumadin® and then with a prescription for phenobarbital. Only one of the 48 pharmacists notified the prescribing physician of the drug interaction, even though most of the practitioners said they scanned their patients' profiles prior to dispensing new prescriptions. A substantial percentage of the practitioners had also completed a continuing education course dealing with drug interactions during the previous 24 months.