Main Article Content

Influence of pharmacists expertise on physicians prescription decisions


Mohsen Ali Murshid
Zurina Mohaidin
Goh Yen Nee

Abstract

Purpose: To explore the influence of pharmacist factors on prescription decisions of physicians.
Methods: A survey of literature was carried out across online databases and 12 relevant articles were identified. The influence of pharmacist factors on physician prescription decisions was identified in the articles. A conceptual model for  investigating pharmacist factors that influence physicians’ prescription decisions was then developed.
Results: The main factors identified were pharmacist expertise, pharmacist – physician collaboration, and trust between physician and pharmacist. There was no direct evidence of influence of pharmacist expertise on prescription, but some studies indicated that pharmacist recommendation is in tandem with the prescribing behaviour of physicians. One study reported that pharmacist–physician  collaboration positively influenced physicians’ prescribing decision, while others found no relationship between these.
Conclusion: Existing literature on the influence of pharmacist factors on prescription behaviour of physicians are limited and debatable. There is no consistency in these studies. Moreover, studies that reported a strong connection between the  trustworthiness and pharmacist–physician collaboration in drug prescription lack hard evidence.


Keywords: Physician prescription behaviour, Pharmacist factor, Collaboration,  Trustworthiness


Journal Identifiers


eISSN: 1596-9827
print ISSN: 1596-5996