Pharmacy practice research

Pharmacy practice research

Pharmacy practice research, as a discipline, has been developing since the 1970s; a summit involving key stakeholders in 2008 concluded:

pharmacy practice research has come some way over the last 10 years and some highly influential research has been undertaken in all four nations. However, in general the research is largely small-scale and exploratory in nature, due in part to a comparatively small research workforce and a shortage of academic and research pharmacists with PhDs.

The Pharmacy Practice Research Trust identified five priorities:

1. long-term conditions

2. public health

3. minor ailments/self-care

4. integrating research into practice

5. integrating evidence into practice.

NHS organisations have identified clinical priorities such as cancer, coronary heart disease, stroke and mental health that usually form the basis of local NHS R&D strategies. Some NHS organisations will have well-established research programmes and some may have health services research pro-grammes into which pharmacy practice research fits. Some organisations may have their own pharmacy practice R&D detailing service priorities. Practitioners will also have local questions arising in their organisation and areas of personal interest that they will want to pursue. However, because there are capacity constraints, R&D activity is more likely to be supported if it addresses identified local and/or national priorities or organi-sational issues.

This chapter will go on to discuss how to plan a research or development project, looking at research questions and outcome measures, literature-searching, study design, necessary approvals (research ethics and gover-nance), resources needed and how to disseminate findings. Finally some thoughts on collaborations between practice and academia for the future are discussed. There are many useful books and articles that can help. Here we provide a summary of key points and there is a list of resources at the end of the chapter.