Rx Note

Introduction The Pharmacist's Patient Care Process (PPCP) is a fundamental, five-step framework that guides pharmacists' clinical activities. In 2014, the Joint Commission of Pharmacy Practitioners (JCPP) , representing 11 national pharmacy organizations, endorsed the initial version of this framework. An updated version of the PPCP was released in 2025, expanding upon the same five core steps: Collect, Assess, Plan, Implement and Follow-up . This revision was made to incorporate key contemporary concepts (e.g. telehealth , electronic health records, digital health devices, clinical documentation, billing systems and independent prescribing ) that reflect the evolving role of pharmacists in modern healthcare. The Five Essential Steps Collect The Collect step involves gather necessary subjective and objective information to fully understand a patient's health status and needs. This data is collected and verified from multiple sources, including the patient, caregiver, obse...

Introduction Fundamentally, research seeks to uncover new knowledge. Sample size calculation determines the optimal number of participants required for a study. This balance ensures sufficient statistical power to detect meaningful effects while minimizing unnecessary resource expenditure and ethical implications , particularly in areas like drug trials. Moreover, in studies with large sample, even small effect becomes significant, whereas in small sample, a large effect may not be significant. Numerous statistical software packages are available (e.g., SPSS, R program, PS: Power and Sample Size Calculation ), and their use should be clearly specified within research studies. Key Elements of Sample Size Calculation Type of research question and associated designs Therapeutic Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) for binomial (e.g., success/failure) or continuous outcomes (e.g., blood pressure). Aetiology Cohort or case-control studies, with considerations for confounders and effect siz...