[Roles and impacts of pharmaceutical activity from 1990 to today: Literature review and research perspectives]

There is more and more evidence about the roles and impacts of the pharmacist. Health decision makers, managers, clinicians and patients need evidence to support an appropriate allocation of funds to different models of practice.

The main objective is to present an inventory of the roles and impacts of pharmaceutical activity in the international literature.

Review of literature. The articles related to the pharmacist's roles and impacts were selected according to a reproducible research strategy from 1990 to the present day (French/English with description of the intervention and impacts, where applicable) and a standard operating procedure. The following variables were extracted: author, country, specifications, pharmaceutical activities, care programs, targeted pathologies, impacts according to eight markers (mortality, morbidity, costs, adverse events, medication errors, compliance, satisfaction, others) and quality score. Only descriptive statistics were performed.

As of February 1st, 2019, we recorded 2424 articles divided into 100 subjects (41 pharmaceutical activities, 30 pathologies, 29 care programs). Studies come from the United States (46.66%), multiple countries (8.00%), Canada (7.67%), France (6.06%), the United Kingdom (5.19%), Australia (3.50%) and other countries (22.92%). Studies are cross-sectional (47.55%), retrospective (33.68%) and prospective (17.87%) or non-categorized (<1%). The markers associated with the pharmacist's activity concern morbidity (23.12%), medication errors (11.82%), satisfaction (7.13%), compliance (6.06%), costs (5.47%), adverse events (3.74%), mortality (1.36%), and other indicators (41.31%). The studies have 6763 descriptive parameters and 5224 impact parameters (60.42% are positive, 38.55% are neutral and 1.03% are negative).

This literature review confirms the roles and impacts of the pharmaceutical activity both in the pharmacy and in the hospital. A majority of the pharmaceutical interventions studied have positive impacts. It is essential to consider evidence about the roles and impacts of the pharmaceutical activities to take full advantage of the pharmacist's expertise in healthcare.