SEFH’s NEUMO workgroup was created to address the challenge of managing respiratory conditions in the hospital setting.
Respiratory conditions stand out because of their high prevalence and associated morbidity. Some chronic conditions, such as asthma and COPD, are characterized by their high complexity and variability, which result in a heavy clinical workload. At the infectious level, special mention should be made of pneumonia because of its high incidence and of tuberculosis due to its high complexity and clinical impact. At the same time, there are several rare diseases with a significant respiratory component such as cystic fibrosis, pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary fibrosis.
Drug therapy is key for managing these patients. The condition itself as well as the patient’s status typically determine the choice of treatment, which may be of different kinds: inhaled therapy, systemic corticosteroids, biologic agents, immunosuppressors, hospital-only medicines, narrow-therapeutic-range medicines, etc. The associated polypharmacy must be appropriately managed to ensure the efficacy and safety of treatments in an economically unfavorable environment.
The pharmacist’s role in managing pharmacological therapies is potentially wide-ranging, including areas such as indication, dosing, inhalation technique, adherence, patient education on the characteristics of the condition, potential adverse reactions and interactions associated with the medication, immunosuppression, deprescription, and new technologies, just to name a few. The concepts must be addressed in a multidisciplinary environment, taking into consideration the patient’s perspective to obtain the best health outcomes possible.