Poudel Arjun, Nissen Lisa M
School of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
Integr Pharm Res Pract. 2016 Oct 26;5:75-82. doi: 10.2147/IPRP.S101685. eCollection 2016.
The use of information and telecommunication technologies has expanded at a rapid rate, which has a strong influence on healthcare delivery in many countries. Rural residents and communities, however, often lack easy access to healthcare services due to geographical and demographical factors. Telepharmacy, a more recent concept that refers to pharmaceutical service provision, enables healthcare services, such as medication review, patients counseling, and prescription verification, by a qualified pharmacist for the patients located at a distance from a remotely located hospital, pharmacy, or healthcare center. Telepharmacy has many recognizable benefits such as the easy access to healthcare services in remote and rural locations, economic benefits, patient satisfaction as a result of medication access and information in rural areas, effective patient counseling, and minimal scarcity of local pharmacist and pharmacy services. Telepharmacy undoubtedly is a great concept, but it is sometimes challenging to put into practice. Inherent to the adoption of these practices are legal challenges and pitfalls that need to be addressed. The start-up of telepharmacy (hardware, software, connectivity, and operational cost) involves considerable time, effort, and money. For rural hospitals with fewer patients, the issue of costs appears to be one of the biggest barriers to telepharmacy services. Moreover, execution and implementation of comprehensive and uniform telepharmacy law is still a challenge. A well-developed system, however, can change the practice of pharmacy that is beneficial to both the rural communities and the hospitals or retail pharmacies that deliver these services.
信息和通信技术的使用迅速扩展，这对许多国家的医疗服务产生了重大影响。然而，由于地理和人口因素，农村居民和社区往往难以获得医疗服务。远程药学是一个较新的概念，指的是提供药学服务，它使合格的药剂师能够为远离偏远医院、药房或医疗中心的患者提供诸如药物审查、患者咨询和处方核实等医疗服务。远程药学有许多明显的好处，如偏远和农村地区的居民能够轻松获得医疗服务、经济效益、农村地区患者因能获取药物和信息而产生的满意度、有效的患者咨询，以及当地药剂师和药房服务的稀缺性降至最低。远程药学无疑是一个很棒的概念，但有时实施起来具有挑战性。采用这些做法存在一些法律挑战和陷阱需要解决。远程药学的启动（硬件、软件、连接和运营成本）需要大量的时间、精力和资金。对于患者较少的农村医院来说，成本问题似乎是远程药学服务面临的最大障碍之一。此外，全面统一的远程药学法律的执行和实施仍然是一个挑战。然而，一个完善的系统可以改变药学实践，这对农村社区以及提供这些服务的医院或零售药房都有益。
