Authors (including presenting author) :
Zheng SM(1), Chan CY(1), Chan KY(1), Wong PK(1), Chui CMW(1)
Affiliation :
(1) Pharmacy Department, Queen Mary Hospital
Introduction :
In March 2022, Molnupiravir and Ritonavir-boosted Nirmatrelvir were used by the Hospital Authority for the treatment of non-hospitalised patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 infection. It is crucial to ensure patients have completed the full course of oral antiviral prescribed and know how to manage side effects and drug-drug interactions. One way to achieve this is to use digital patient empowerment. The need for digital communication including Teleconsultation and Telepharmacy has grown exponentially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Clinical Pharmacists of Queen Mary Hospital (QMH) produced three drug educational videos for the two oral antivirals and uploaded them to the HA Go App. Clinical Pharmacists would “prescribe” these videos through HA Go to patients before conducting a Telepharmacy counselling.
Objectives :
To evaluate Clinical Pharmacists’ use of drug educational videos in reinforcing drug information to patients and to assess patients’ utilization rate of educational videos.
Methodology :
An electronic questionnaire was disseminated to the Pharmacists at QMH to collect opinions on the educational videos (in Likert scale of 1-5, from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) on their perceived quality, experience with prescribing the videos and overall rating on the effectiveness of using videos in patient counselling were collected. Data for utilization rate was retrieved through Pharmacy Management System.
Result & Outcome :
21 responses were collected. The quality of the videos (sufficiency and relevancy, organization, and length) was rated between 4.7 to 4.8 out of 5. The experience in prescribing the videos (saving time, improving patient’s medication adherence, supplementing information, conveniency to prescribe the videos, and easiness of the videos to follow) was rated between 4.2 to 4.7 out of 5. Overall, the effectiveness of using educational videos in patient counselling was rated 4.5 out of 5. In QMH, there were a total of 7423 patients with COVID-19 prescribed with drug educational videos during the last quarter of 2022. Of them, 6768 patients (91%) utilized the videos for acquiring drug information before taking the medicine. Overall, it is agreed that with the use of drug educational videos and mobile Apps, it can enhance patient empowerment and quality of pharmaceutical care by Pharmacists. With healthcare professionals and patients becoming more accustomed to the digital method of providing care, it is no doubt that digital patient empowerment will shape the future of healthcare and expand its service scoop to wider patient groups.
