Novel opportunities for clinical pharmacy research: development of a machine learning model to identify medication related causes of delirium in different patient groups

The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies has taken the world of science by storm in 2023. The opportunities of this easy to access technology for clinical pharmacy research are yet to be fully understood. The development of a custom-made large language model (LLM) (DELSTAR) trained on a wide range of internationally recognised scientific publication databases, pharmacovigilance sites and international product characteristics to help identify and summarise medication related information on delirium, as a proof-of-concept model, identified new facilitators and barriers for robust clinical pharmacy practice research. This technology holds great promise for the development of much more comprehensive prescribing guidelines, practice support applications for clinical pharmacy, increased patient and prescribing safety and resultant implications for healthcare costs. The challenge will be to ensure its methodologically robust use and the detailed and transparent verification of its information accuracy.

A hospital day care program for alcoholics

A high drop-out rate for conventional outpatient counseling of alcoholics led to implementation of a hospital-based intensive day care program in which patients attend treatment activities at the hospital throughout the day for ten days. During the day care program, patients are introduced to aftercare with supportive counseling and Alcoholics Anonymous. Day care has been found to enhance program flexibility to meet specialized patient needs, and to dramatically reduce the number of drop-outs. Significant short term improvement is noted in 41.6% of patients treated with intensive day care. Intensive hospital-based day care is proving to be a low cost, effective treatment modality. Long term outcome studies are suggested.

Open assessment of fenoterol (Berotec) in severe asthmatics in general practice

An open clinical trial to establish the efficacy of fenoterol (Berotec) aerosol bronchodilator was conducted on 11 severely affected asthmatic patients in a Sydney general practice. Berotec was found to be an effective bronchodilator with a very rapid onset of action. Over 60% of the maximum response from a single puff dose was evident one minute after inhalation. Berotec also has a long duration of action, as there was statistically significant bronchodilator effect six hours after inhalation, and even at eight hours after inhalation, improvement on baseline values was demonstrated. Berotec appears to have significant advantages over other bronchodilators.