Jointly set up by KEM Hospital and Maharashtra State Pharmacy Council (MSPC), the first of its kind patient counselling centre (PCC) of India at KEM Hospital has been able to address the drug compliance requirements of around 3500 patients over the past nine months through rational usage of latest generation drugs.

Due to this initiative, diabetes patients have been able to adhere to the rational usage of latest generation of drugs like Sitagliptin and Vildagliptin, according to officials associated with the development.

The patients get the know-how about rational usage of scheduled drugs with help from a dedicated pharmacist appointed by the MSPC as a step towards emphasizing the role of pharmacists in patient safety at the point of care.

This according to the MSPC officials will also dispel a lot of misconceptions with regards to medical prescription, adverse drug reactions, drug usage, dosage and time schedule for patient safety.

Set up in line with Pharmacy Practice Regulations 2015, the centre caters to around 35 patients on a daily basis for the drug-compliance needs of patients suffering from diabetes and neurological disorders like epilepsy among others.

As per the newly introduced system, patient is guided to submit the stamped prescription at the centre which he gets from the physician at the hospital after thorough and proper investigations. The pharmacist at the centre registers the patient's records and accordingly counsels him on drug usage based on the prescription with help from a Micromedex database on medicines. The database is user-friendly and makes available evidence-based drug information and clinical answers much faster and easier.

This has also given patients respite from the long arduous schedule of visiting the OPD, clinic, lab for investigations and finally to the dispensary which entails a lot of paperwork and stress. The pharmacist deputed from MSPC and KEM Hospital guides on using the prescription in a practical and rationale way so that medicines are consumed properly to give the desired therapeutic effects.

Says Sheetal Chandan, pharmacist and co-ordinator at the centre, “Equipped with a robust evidence based clinical reference software called Micromedex, the centre takes care about drug use and aspects like drug-drug reaction, drug-food reaction and other contraindications.”

The centre caters to patients every day from Monday to Saturday from 9 AM to 4 PM.

In order to deliver clinically relevant information on drugs, the concept of drug information centre (DIC) was started with 21 DICs in the country. After launching of Pharm D courses in India during 2008-2009, each college in India started gearing up towards setting up DIC and the number of DICs in the country gradually reached the figure of around 100 or so. But very few of them are working effectively as of today.