Implementation of personalized medicine services in community pharmacies: Perceptions of independent community pharmacists

Katelyn M. Alexander, Holly S. Divine, Cathy R. Hanna, Yevgeniya Gokun, Patricia R. Freeman

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

49 Scopus citations

Abstract

Conclusion: The majority of independent community pharmacists are interested in incorporating personalized medicine services into their practices, but they require further education before this is possible. Future initiatives should focus on the development of comprehensive education programs to further train pharmacists for provision of these services.

Objectives: To evaluate the perceptions of independent community pharmacists within a regional independent community pharmacy cooperative on implementing personalized medicine services at their pharmacies and to gauge the pharmacists' self-reported knowledge of pharmacogenomic principles.

Design: Descriptive, exploratory, nonexperimental study.

Setting: American Pharmacy Services Corporation (APSC), 2011-12.

Participants: Pharmacists (n = 101) affiliated with the independent pharmacies of APSC.

Intervention: Single-mode survey

Main outcome measures: Independent community pharmacists' interest in implementing personalized medicine services, perceived readiness to provide such services, and perceived barriers to implementation.

Results: 101 completed surveys were returned for data analysis. The majority of pharmacists surveyed (75%) expressed interest in offering personalized medicine services. When asked to describe their knowledge of pharmacogenomics and readiness to implement such services, more than 50% said they were not knowledgeable on the subject and would not currently be comfortable making drug therapy recommendations to physicians or confident counseling patients based on results of genetic screenings without further training and education. Respondents identified cost of providing the service, reimbursement issues, current knowledge of pharmacogenomics, and time to devote to the program as the greatest barriers to implementing personalized medicine services.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)510-517
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of the American Pharmacists Association
Volume54
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 1 2014

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Funding: American Pharmacists Association Foundation Incentive Grant; additional support provided by the National Institute of Health's (NIH) National Center for Research Resources and National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (grant 8UL1TR000117-02). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of NIH.

Funding Information:
Acknowledgment: The authors would like to acknowledge the American Pharmacists Association Foundation for providing an incentive grant to support this research. Additionally, the authors extend a special thank you to the American Pharmacy Services Corporation pharmacists who participated in this study.

Keywords

  • Community pharmacy
  • Personalized medicine
  • Pharmacogenomics

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Pharmacology (nursing)
  • Pharmacy
  • Pharmacology

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