Abstract
Cancer patients and the application of pharmaceutical care: 1) Patients with chronic illnesses receive multiple benefits from pharmaceutical care. 2) The pharmaceutical care of the cancer patient must be co-ordinated with the physician. 3) The cancer care-providing pharmacist should acquire psychological competency. 4) The pharmacist sets up and maintains for the patient a drug therapy record and a drug application plan. Cancer patients require our attention and our professional knowledge in many respects.
On the one hand, there is the centralized aseptic preparation of chemotherapy drugs with respective individual requirements, on the other hand there is the monitoring of therapy, pharmacoeconomics, reducing the risk of chemotherapy errors and safe drug handling. All of these require our professional commitment. In order to provide care to cancer patients in community pharmacies, it is essential to establish a structural procedure. Individualized counselling and personal care of the patient is a part of pharmaceutical services.
Development of a constructive and relevant relationship between patient and pharmacist must be cultivated and begins with the issue of the first prescription. Possibly the patient could still frequent his regular pharmacy and use the special pharmacy only for oncology therapy. In the near future, with patient authorization, an exchange of medication-related data between hospital and community pharmacy will also be possible. We consider a possible German concept for oncology out-patients.
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