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Biomedical subjects

Makoto Shiragami

Publications and source records attributed to Makoto Shiragami.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

The realities and medical expense of hospitalization that originates in outpatient medicine treatment.

Problems associated with outpatient pharmacotherapy may require hospitalization. However, such hospitalization may be prevented if pharmacist's pharmaceutical care (PC) is given. We investigated the reasons for hospitalization in medical institutions and medical expenses were calculated. Inpatient diagnoses, treatment, etc. in the previous year in the past were examined, and cases of hospitalization due to drug therapy were extracted. Next, the possibility of preventing hospitalization with PC practice was examined. Among 1552 cases, outpatient pharmacotherapy was the reason for hospitalization in 27 cases. Noncompliance was the underlying cause in about 40% of hospitalizations. It was thought that in 22 cases hospitalization could have been prevented by pharmacist's PC. The average hospitalization medical expense was 295,805 yen per patient. It is necessary to perform regular consultation recommendations, interventions with the family, home care, etc. for proactive PC.

Ambulatory Care↗

Cost-effectiveness of including salmeterol in asthma therapy in a primary care setting in Japan.

To discuss and estimate the clinical and economic benefits obtained during combination therapy with inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) plus salmeterol (SLM) for Japanese patients with asthma on the basis of the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) Guidelines. Fifty-four cases aged>16 years with either moderate persistent asthma (step 3) or severe persistent asthma (step 4) were assessed in a retrospective survey. Participants must have been a patient at the author's clinic continuously from June 2001 and been users of SLM for more than one year. Signed informed consent was obtained. Both clinical and economic components of SLM use in asthma therapy over the past two years were evaluated. Cost analyses revealed that SLM use significantly reduced medical costs of leukotriene receptor antagonist and short-acting inhaled beta(2)-agonists. Moreover, clinical outcomes (e.g. symptom-free day) were significantly improved after initiation of SLM. Sensitivity analyses confirmed that use of SLM is cost-effective. Combination therapy with inhaled corticosteroids and SLM on the basis of GINA guidelines appears to be efficacious and cost effective for the treatment of moderate or severe persistent asthma in Japanese patients.

Administration, Inhalation↗

[Cost-effectiveness of fluticasone propionate for asthma episodes in Japanese patients with asthma--Fluticasone Investigation of Asthma Episode (FINE) study].

BACKGROUND: To discuss and estimate the economic benefits gained by fluticasone propionate (FP) for patients with asthma over hospitalization, emergency room visit, unscheduled visit, and absence (representative by asthma-related episode). METHOD: Asthma-related episodes in pre and post 6 months of FP use were derived from a survey of FP on asthma-related episodes (FINE study). Medical cost was evaluated by macro-cost estimate and productivity loss by human capital approach. RESULTS: Discussion of asthma-related episodes in-between before and after the use of FP in eight hundred ninety-eight valuable subjects revealed that FP use significantly reduced asthma-related episodic costs of approximately 120,000 yen (p<0.001), whereas total drug acquisition costs for being newly consumed FP, leukotriene receptor antagonists, inhaled short-acting beta2 agonists, etc were significantly increased by approximately 16,000 yen. Moreover, while significantly avoiding productivity loss of approximately about 35,000 yen it totally provided cost-savings of about 70,000 yen at the patients' viewpoint. When sensitivity analyses were performed by adjusting the confounding factors using analysis of covariance, the aforementioned base case results might be persistent. For safety of FP, some adverse events related to the use of FP were identified of about 2.0%, and there were not any serious ones at all. CONCLUSION: The economic evaluation of FP demonstrated that it is sufficient, whereas an acquisition cost was increased. Use of FP economically impacts on Japanese society and patients.

Adult↗

[Evaluation of information for generic drugs based on importance and necessity].

Limited use of generics in Japan has been justified on the basis of problematic quality, distribution and information. Of these three problem areas, the state of provision of information in particular has never been objectively evaluated. We therefore sought to evaluate information according to its necessity and importance to medical practice. To establish criteria for evaluation, we weighted 36 separate pieces of drug information found in package inserts and interview forms according to necessity and importance, based on the results of a survey of nationwide medical institutions with DI offices. We then used the evaluation criteria to evaluate currently available drugs with 20 or more products per formulation. We evaluated 14 formulations (324 products). Generic drugs were found to have 25.3+/-18.7 to 46.1+/-14.2% (Mean+/-S.D.) the information of brand name drugs when products were compared for quantity of information by formulation. However, comparison according to manufacturer returned a larger range of variation at 14.4+/-8.6 to 64.3+/-14.2% (Mean+/-S.D.). These data reveal that manufacturer differences play a large role in the provision of drug information. Drug information was also compared separately by category for both brand name and generic drugs. Generic drugs were found to have insufficient information on clinical data, pharmacokinetics, safety, side effects, and nonclinical tests. Brand name drugs also scored low points for information on pharmacokinetics. It is imperative that both brand name and generic drugs provide more information on pharmacokinetics.

Drug Industry↗

Objective evaluation of generic drug information.

Pharmacists active in health care venues need to be able to evaluate generic drugs in terms of effectiveness, safety, and economy to ensure that they are used appropriately. As part of the ongoing study of these factors, we carried out an objective evaluation of information provided for generics. A minimum of 20 commercially available products was considered for each pharmaceutical ingredient. The information subjected to evaluation consisted of the text of drug package inserts and information noted on interview forms. Using our own criteria for evaluating drug information, we attempted to quantify the amounts of information provided. Then, based on the numerical values obtained, we calculated information quantities with reference to drug prices to study the relationship between prices and available information for original drugs and their later-developed, generic equivalents. A total of 14 different pharmaceutical ingredients (327 product items) were considered, with the information quantity for generics amounting to 27.9+/-17.8-46.3+/-21.4% (Mean+/-S.D.) that for the original drugs. Examined on the basis of individual pharmaceutical companies, the corresponding ratio came to 15.1+/-7.8-62.4+/-6.4% (Mean+/-S.D.). For generics, the relationship between drug price (expressed against a value of 1.0 for original drugs) and information quantity (Qua(i)) came to 0.79+/-0.46-1.90+/-0.79% (Mean+/-S.D.). These results clearly point to the importance of evaluating information quantity for generic drugs on a maker-by-maker basis.

Commerce↗

[Comparison of the effects of prophylactic antibiotic therapy and cost-effectiveness between cefazolin (CEZ) and Sulbactam/Ampicillin (SBT/ABPC) in gastric cancer surgery employing clinical pathway].

The present study was designed to investigate the effects of prophylactic antibiotic therapy and the cost-effectiveness of Cefazolin (CEZ) and Sulbactam/Ampicillin (SBT/ABPC) in gastric cancer surgery employing clinical pathway. 157 patients (62 in the CEZ group and 95 in the SBT/ABPC group), who underwent surgery for gastric cancer at the First Department of Surgery of our hospital, were investigated. There was no significant difference between the groups with regard to sex, age, incidence of complication, stage of cancer, surgical method, operative time and blood loss, length of hospitalization, the appearance of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS), changes body temperature, white blood cell count (WBC), C-reactive protein (CRP), or clinical outcome of postoperative care by a nurse during post-operation for 7 days. The prophylactic effect of infection was also no different between the CEZ (69.4%) and SBT/ABPC (69.5%) groups. In contrast, decision analysis strongly indicated that the anticipate cost of antibiotics was higher in the latter group (yen 20402) than in the CEZ group (yen 15556), suggesting that the prophylactic effect of CEZ may be more cost-effective. Thus, evaluations of pharmacotherapy from the aspect of cost may be one of the important responsibility of hospital pharmacists in the future.

Aged↗

[Calculation of drug information necessity factor of generic drugs].

The utilization of generic drugs has been promoted, but there is concern about the insufficiency of the information provided on generic drugs. To make an objective evaluation of the amount of information supplied by generic drug manufactures, we tried to quantify the information supply. The information described in the package insert and the interview form were used in the evaluation. We sent a questionnaire to 1000 randomly selected hospitals nationwide to determine the necessity of each information item in medical practice, and weighted the score allotted to each item based on replies from 524 hospitals. We applied these procedures to diclofenac sodium products and found that the score for a branded drug was 60.5 points and that for generic drugs ranged from 1.6 to 58.3 points. This indicates that there were great variations in information supply activities among the manufacturers. The Qua value, which was the ratio of the points of a generic drug per unit price in the drug tariff to the points of the branded drug, ranged from 0.1 to 2.4. We think that these procedures will make it possible to select the appropriate generic drugs in medical practice.

Drug Industry↗

[Pharmacoeconomics].

The pharmacoeconomics is relatively new field in pharmaceutical science. In August, Pharmaceutical Society of Japan published "model core curriculums for pharmacy education" and pharmacoeconomics is included in it. As the Japanese health insurance system is composed of fee for service system and small patients' co-payment, physicians as well as patients have not needed pharmacoeconomic analysis. However the recent economic squeeze begin to direct their attention to the pharmacoeconomics research. The pharmacoeconomic analysis is intended to show alternatives to the decision maker for their consideration. The analyst should not impose his of her conclusion on the decision maker. The analysis must reflect the actual medical practice under the circumstances where the decision-making will be done. Pharmacists in hospitals are expected to conduct pharmacoeconomic analysis for themselves, using their hospital's data, for their decision maker, hospital manager. This article introduces some pharmacoeconomic analysis and outlines analytical measures for the economic evaluation such as cost utility analysis and cost benefit analysis.

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗