Marketing Consultants to the Overlooked Disabled Community

BUFFALO, NY - MedPage Today disclosed that when pharmacists are more active in patient care, disease outcomes are better - particularly for diabetics, a study shows.  Diabetics who had an intensive consultation with a pharmacist as to their medications, plus follow-up, saw significant gains in hemoglobin A1c and fasting plasma glucose, Erin Slazak, PharmD, of the University at Buffalo, and her team reported online in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association.  The pilot study had only 50 patients, and lacked a control group, but Slazak said she and her team collected the data "because we wanted to show we were having a positive effect on patient outcomes at the primary care level.  There's an increasing body of evidence to support that pharmacists provide an effective and unique role in a collaborative disease management model," said Toni Fera, PharmD, the lead investigator of the Diabetes Ten City Challenge.  "Medication adherence is critical to the management of chronic diseases, and pharmacists are uniquely trained to help patients understand why they need to take their medications," Fera said.  "It helps overcome barriers that prevent patients from taking their medications appropriately."