Abstract
Community pharmacists (CPs) continue to have an important role in improving public health, however, advances in telehealth and digital technology mean that the methods by which they support their customers and patients are changing. The primary aim of this study was to identify which telehealth and digital technology tools are used by CPs for public health purposes and determine if these have a positive impact on public health outcomes. A systematic review was carried out using databases including PubMed and ScienceDirect, covering a time period from April 2005 until April 2020. The search criteria were the following: randomized controlled trials, published in English, investigating the delivery of public health services by community pharmacists using a telehealth or digital tool. Thirteen studies were included out of 719 initially identified. Nine studies detailed the use of telephone prompts or calls, one study detailed the use of a mobile health application, two studies detailed the use of a remote monitoring device, and one study detailed the use of photo-aging software. Public health topics that were addressed included vaccination uptake (n = 2), smoking cessation (n = 1), hypertension management (n = 2), and medication adherence and counseling (n = 8). More studies are needed to demonstrate whether or not the use of novel technology by CPs can improve public health.
Highlights
At a time when the world is in the midst of a global pandemic [1], community pharmacists need to adapt to a “new normal” in which human-to-human contact between them and their patients/customers can be limited [2]
Public health topics addressed in the studies included vaccination rates [46,47], smoking cessation [54], medication adherence [48,49,52,53,55,57,58], medication counseling [56], and hypertension management [50,51]
This systematic review of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating the use of telehealth and digital technology by community pharmacists to improve public health has identified a number of studies that demonstrated the effective use of these tools
Summary
At a time when the world is in the midst of a global pandemic [1], community pharmacists need to adapt to a “new normal” in which human-to-human contact between them and their patients/customers can be limited [2]. New approaches to communication and service delivery are needed to keep community pharmacy teams and the public safe from a virus that has no known vaccine and whose long-term impact on society is not yet known [2,3]. The focus for community pharmacy is to deal with the pandemic, there may come a time, in the near future, when the pressures of this subside, and community pharmacists will need to consider how they continue to deliver public health interventions that deliver positive health outcomes, but in an era of continued social distancing [3]. According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2016 global report on causes of deaths [4], six of the top ten causes of death were from noncommunicable diseases
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