Objective: It is very important that, to avoid, pharmacists-check medication being taken by patient.  In the Hokkaido University Hospital we used commercial drug identification software at the start of outpatient prescription identification duty and reported the outcome.  Furthermore, we filled in another hand-written check sheet with the drug’s name, whether or not it is used in our hospital, alternative drugs, and the dosage and administration.  Because of the risk of drugs being entered by mistake, we built a database for drug identification and distinguished the outpatient’s prescriptions.  With this system it is possible integrate identification reports and check sheet using one style, automatically.  We also to smoothly rationalize duties by planning correct communication between the medical staff.  At the same time, we analyzed the case that was able to intervene in reasonable use of medical supplies with a past identification report as a result of pharmacists distinguishing outpatient prescriptions.
Design and Methods: This system was constructed using Microsoft® Access, which is a general-purpose database software.  Also, the medical supply database that we used for this system uses “Drugs in Japan Ethical Drugs DB (supervised by Drugs in Japan Forum)” published by JIHO Co., Ltd.
Results: By using this system, we were able to reduce the time required to identify the drugs and make the report.  The result of a questionnaire carried out on doctors and a nurses and medical staff revealed that more than 90% of the respondents claimed, “the report is easy to refer.”  Likewise, we analyzed a report of the previous year and recognized that medical staff could not find the inappropriate use of prescriptions for outpatients in about 17.5%.
Conclusion: This system improved the efficiency of outpatient prescriptions practices, and it became clear that it could be used convincingly as a tool to share appropriate drug information between medical staff and pharmacists, more precisely.  In addition, feedback from medical staff suggested that it might prevent the risk of problems surrounding outpatient prescriptions, from the viewpoint of the pharmacist.

Objective: In this study, we conducted a questionnaire survey of hospital pharmacists throughout Japan with the aim of identifying the most-requested in-hospital preparations and off-label use drugs, and exploring the possibility of commercializing them.Methods: The Commercialization Study Group of the Japanese Society of Hospital Pharmacists conducted a questionnaire survey on the Japanese Society of Hospital Pharmacists website targeting hospital pharmacists who are members of the Japanese Society of Hospital Pharmacists. The period of the survey was from February 1, 2019 until January 21, 2020. In the questionnaire, the respondents wrote specific product names (generic names), specifications, and dosage forms that they would like to see improved and made commercially available in a free-text format. In addition, respondents chose their reasons for wanting the product to be improved or made commercially available from a list.Results: A total of 1,627 drugs were requested to be made commercially available. After duplicates and insufficient descriptions were excluded, the total was 553. The drugs that were most frequently requested were Levothyroxine suppositories, followed by Mohs’ ointment and Ulinastatin vaginal suppositories.Discussion: This survey identified certain drugs that pharmacists want to be commercialized and the specific reasons why. In-hospital preparations not only benefit patients whose diseases are becoming more complex and difficult to treat with existing prescription drugs, but also enable pharmacists to demonstrate their abilities. We believe that the commercialization of these important in-hospital preparations and off-label drugs will help avoid various risks associated with dispensing them and enhance the pharmacy profession. For this reason, pharmaceutical drug companies should conduct further surveys on the actual use of and literature research on the efficacy and safety of the drugs that were ranked high on the questionnaire and start considering their commercialization.