Evidence map›Paper›PMID 12847034›Full record

Trial reportCMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne2003

A randomized controlled trial of a pharmacist consultation program for family physicians and their elderly patients.

John Sellors, Janusz Kaczorowski, Connie Sellors, Lisa Dolovich, Christel Woodward, Andrew Willan, Ron Goeree, Roxanne Cosby, Kristina Trim, Rolf Sebaldt and 3 more

Open access · greenAbstract readClinical TrialMulticenter StudyRandomized Controlled Trial
PubMed Full text at PMC
In one paragraph

Trial report in CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne, 2003. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 66 papers, 18 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
66citing papers in PubMed, 18 pooled it
8.8field-weighted citation impact, top 2% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

66 citing papers in PubMed, 18 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 192 citations in OpenAlex.

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  7. Impact of integrating pharmacists into primary care teams on health systems indicators: a systematic review.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2019
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  8. Pharmacist services for non-hospitalised patients.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2018
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6 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

13 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

John SellorsDepartment of Family Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ont.
Janusz Kaczorowski
Connie Sellors
Lisa Dolovich
Christel Woodward
Andrew Willan
Ron Goeree
Roxanne Cosby
Kristina Trim
Rolf Sebaldt
Michelle Howard
Linda Hardcastle
Jeff Poston
McMaster University · CA

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundPharmacists can improve patient outcomes in institutional and pharmacy settings, but little is known about their effectiveness as consultants to primary care physicians. We examined whether an intervention by a specially trained pharmacist could reduce the number of daily medication units taken by elderly patients, as well as costs and health care use.

methodsWe conducted a randomized controlled trial in family practices in 24 sites in Ontario. We randomly allocated 48 randomly selected family physicians (69.6% participation rate) to the intervention or the control arm, along with 889 (69.5% participation rate) of their randomly selected community-dwelling, elderly patients who were taking 5 or more medications daily. In the intervention group, pharmacists conducted face-to-face medication reviews with the patients and then gave written recommendations to the physicians to resolve any drug-related problems. Process outcomes included the number of drug-related problems identified among the senior citizens in the intervention arm and the proportion of recommendations implemented by the physicians.

resultsAfter 5 months, seniors in the intervention and control groups were taking a mean of 12.4 and 12.2 medication units per day respectively (p = 0.50). There were no statistically significant differences in health care use or costs between groups. A mean of 2.5 drug-related problems per senior was identified in the intervention arm. Physicians implemented or attempted to implement 72.3% (790/1093) of the recommendations.

interpretationThe intervention did not have a significant effect on patient outcomes. However, physicians were receptive to the recommendations to resolve drug-related problems, suggesting that collaboration between physicians and pharmacists is feasible.

Indexed as

Outcome and Process Assessment, Health CareAgedAttitude of Health PersonnelCommunity Pharmacy ServicesCooperative BehaviorDrug CostsFemaleHealth Care CostsHealth Services ResearchHumansInterprofessional RelationsMaleOntarioPatient Care TeamPharmacistsPhysicians, Family

Identifiers

PMID12847034
PMCPMC164937
OpenAlexW2149964874

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.