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Biomedical subjects

K W Witte

Publications and source records attributed to K W Witte.

24 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1980

Drug regimen review in skilled nursing facilities by consulting clinical pharmacists.

The organization and operational methods of clinical pharmacists providing contractual pharmaceutical services in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) are described, and the use of a model toidentify drug therapy problems is analysed. A group of clinical pharmacists incorporated as Clinical Pharmacy Consultants (CPC) provided consultative services through contractual agreements with pharmacy vendors or SNF administrators. Using a drug regimen review model designed by CPC, the consulting pharmacists reviewed 13,081 medical charts at 10 SNFs. Of the reviews, 928 (7.1%) indicated potential or real drug therapy problems; on an annual basis this corresponds to approximately eight drug therapy problems per 10 beds per year in an SNF. About 60% of the problems could be attributed either to prescribing of medication with no documented indication (23.9%) or to lack of objective data for monitoring drug therapy effectiveness (34.6%). Because these problems are related to disease state management, it was concluded that consulting clinical pharmacists could help to improve patient care in SNFs, primarily through drug therapy review and staff consultation.

Consultants↗
PubMed1980

Effect of pharmacist consultation on rational antimicrobial therapy.

The incidence of rational decisions concerning antimicorbial therapy before and after the establishment of clinical pharmaceutical services in a hospital was compared. A protocol was designed to determine the rationality of physician orders for antimicrobial therapy. This ptocol was used to analyze retrospectively the medical records for patients admitted to a 30-bed surgical unit and a 30-bed medical unit during two months before and after clinical pharmaceutical services were initiated. The results showed that exposure to routine clinical pharmaceutical services appeared to improve prescribing rationality only of drugs used to treat infectious conditions. Since the study design had no control group, the causal effect of clinical pharmaceutical services on the rationality of antimicrobial therapy could not be determined; however, the use of an organized protocol in monitoring antimicrobial therapy allowed an assessment of the use and misuse of antimicrobials in hospitals.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Immunology of adverse drug reactions.

Adverse reactions to drugs often include an immunologic response. An understanding of immunologic mechanisms is useful in understanding the clinical manifestations of drug allergy. Predisposing factors to the development of allergic reactions to drugs include host factors as well as drug factors. Immune response relates to what we know about the components of the immune system as well as their differentiation and maturation processes. Immunologic reactions are often classified as Type I, Type II, Type III or Type IV, and these reaction types often correlate with clinical manifestations. For each reaction type the mechanism, drugs implicated, clinical manifestations, and treatment can be described.

B-Lymphocytes↗