Physician Collaboration with Pharmacists on Drug Therapy Management

Pharmacist-physician collaboration has been shown to
improve the
safety and cost-effectiveness of drug therapy,
however, it occurs
relatively infrequently in the community setting,
with respect to
drug therapy management. This book provides information
regarding family physician attitudes towards and
readiness
to collaborate with community pharmacists on drug
therapy
management. We developed a survey instrument
utilizing the
Transtheoretical Model of Behaviour Change, and
administered it to
a random sample of 848 family physicians in Ontario,
Canada. We
found that collaborative relationships between
pharmacists and
physicians were generally underdeveloped.
System-related barriers,
including pharmacists' lack of patient information,
were highlighted
by physicians as particularly problematic for
collaborative
relationship development. Our analysis sheds light on
the predictors
of physician readiness to collaborate with
pharmacists, and provide
direction for policy makers and health professionals
interested in
developing collaborative working relationship with
physicians.