Pharmacist-Physician collaborative care for dyslipidemia : The impact on clinical outcomes of type II diabetes patients

Abstract

Background: The rising prevalence of type 2 diabetes poses a major public health challenge. Studies have clearly shown that long-term outcomes for patients with type 2 diabetes can be improved with careful management aimed at controlling glucose, lipid and blood pressure levels. This study was conducted to evaluate the impact of pharmacist-physician collaborative care for management of dyslipidemia on quality of life (QOL) of type 2 diabetes patients and to compare between the pharmacist-physician managed diabetic dyslipidemia group versus the physician only managed group. Patients and methods: The study was carried out on 40 diabetic dyslipidemic patients who were randomized into either Group A (test group) who received pharmacist-physician collaborative care for management of dyslipidemia in diabetics while Group B (control group) who received the usual or standard medical care by physician only. The impact of clinical pharmacist was evaluated by improvement in the clinical outcome of patients and their quality of life. Results: The current study has shown that the outcomes in dyslipidemic management can be improved with the integration of a clinical pharmacy services (CPS) into the clinic. There was an evidenced reduction in levels of lipid profile and also that of HbA1c in the test group who received pharmacist-physician collaborative care for management of dyslipidemia in diabetics than the control group who received the usual medical care by the physician only. Also there was improvement in quality of life of patients who received collaborative care than those who received usual care after 6 months of study from baseline. Conclusion: The findings from this study support the role of pharmacists in the management of dyslipidemia in diabetics through an integrated health system .Furthermore, pharmacist interventions contributed toward improvement in patients’ knowledge and understanding of drug therapy and enhanced medication adherence. Therefore, the pharmacist can be a valuable addition to standard care for patients with T2DM.