A Bibliometric Analysis of Pharmacist-Delivered Care: Global Trends, Outcomes, and Practice Settings (2000-2024)

As the health care landscape evolves rapidly, the demand for an expanded role of pharmacists is also growing. There is ample literature documenting the positive health outcomes of pharmacist-provided services, independently and in collaborative roles. Bibliometric analysis can aid researchers in understanding patterns within the literature, which could be useful in examining the reported outcomes and how pharmacy currently is and could evolve to meet society's needs. Thus, the objective of this study was to describe reported outcomes of pharmacist interventions in the literature from 2000 to 2024 by: (1) describing study characteristics, (2) mapping co-occurrence networks of practice settings, (3) identifying commonly used terminology describing patient-, population-, and system-level outcomes, and (4) comparing outcome differences in the top three practice settings.

Using a bibliometric analytical design, a PubMed literature search focused on pharmacist-related outcomes was conducted. The search results were imported to Covidence (Melbourne, Australia) for title and abstract screening, followed by categorization into preset outcome categories and subcategories. Included studies were analyzed descriptively to explain the scope, pattern, and common terms, while inferential statistics were used to compare differences between practice settings and outcomes.

From 6274 initial publications, 1010 were included, covering outcomes at the patient-level (758; 75%), systems-level (666; 65.9%), and population-level (410; 40.6%). Ambulatory care, hospital, and community pharmacy were the top three practice settings identified. While there were varying co-occurrences based on the practice setting, Clinical Outcomes, Medication Adherence/Compliance, and Patient Education/Patient Counseling were the three most common subcategories of outcomes published. Publications in the topic areas of Health Disparities/Health Equity and Immunization Rates have emerged in recent years.

A bibliometric analysis of pharmacist-related outcomes describes pharmacist involvement in outcome-based practice at patient, system, and population levels. The research on pharmacist outcomes continues to grow and is clinically focused. Opportunities to address global and system-level health needs remain.