BMJ  2007;334 (26 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39224.651991.47

Editor's Choice

Editor's choice

Testing common sense

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

It's always interesting when something that is intuitively likely to work turns out not to. This week, two research papers examine the role of community pharmacists in primary care. Community pharmacists are well placed to provide advice on medications. They have the knowledge and skills and are accessible when doctors may not be, so in theory they could help to tackle social inequalities as well as improving health. Sadly, as summarised by Peri Ballantyne in an accompanying editorial (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39213.660394.80), the studies found that pharmacists' advice didn't have much impact on behaviour or health outcomes and may even have made things worse. Richard Holland and colleagues' randomised controlled trial (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39164.568183.AE) found that sending a pharmacist to visit patients with heart failure in their homes to review their medication and give general advice didn't significantly reduce hospital admissions or mortality. Charlotte Salter and colleagues' qualitative analysis of home . . . [Full text of this article]

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Subject for opinion poll

Andrew J C Carmichael
bmj.com, 5 Jun 2007 [Full text]