Pharmacists Help Hypertension Patients Lower Blood Pressure, Study Finds

When medical care teams include pharmacists, hypertension patients fare better, suggests a new study. The study found that when a clinical pharmacist collaborated with a physician for the care of patients with high blood pressure, those patients showed a blood pressure drop compared with patients who did not have pharmacist care, reports Drug Topics. The pharmacists tailored patients’ medication regimens, resulting in a “systolic blood pressure drop of 6.1 mmHg nine months later,” notes Drug Topics. The full study is available in the Journal of the American Society of Hypertension.

Recognizing that pharmacists can play a pivotal role in improving patient outcomes, NABP passed a resolution, Providing Education About the Role of the Pharmacist and Pharmacist Care Services (Resolution 111-5-15), during the 111^th Annual Meeting held May 16-19, 2015. The resolution called on NABP to collaborate with stakeholders to educate the public and other health care proviers about the services pharmacists can provide, such as medication therapy management services, prescription drug use counseling, and the administration of immunizations.