| Summary: | This research was conducted to investigate how e-health technologies can contribute to the delivery of pharmaceutical care throughout the patient's journey and across traditional care boundaries. The hypothesis was that e-health technologies are enablers of efficient seamless delivery of pharmaceutical care. Qualitative and quantitative methods were used to examine how hospital clinical pharmacists work; to find out which toxicities were experienced by patients prescribed systemic anticancer therapy (SACT) and what their pharmaceutical care issues were; and to investigate the views of both cancer patients and community pharmacists relating to delivery of pharmaceutical care. The main findings were: access to mobile technology improved the efficiency of hospital clinical pharmacists; patients receiving SACT experienced a range of toxicity, some of which could be managed in primary care; patients would be happy to receive more from their community pharmacist; and community pharmacists should have access to electronic patient records (EPR) to safely deliver pharmaceutical care. Most patients who receive SACT experience toxicity in the community. Community pharmacists are ideally placed to support these patients but pharmacists require training and access to EPR to improve their confidence in managing SACT toxicity. Cancer care specialist pharmacists can contribute to the education and training of community pharmacists and initiatives to do so were implemented in NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde (NHSGGC). Health and wellbeing Smartphone Apps can support patients and the Wellness Tracker, designed in this study, aimed to be an innovative technological aid for patients with cancer. Feedback from teenage patients was positive. XPost-study initiatives implemented in NHSGGC included electronic referral from hospital to GP-based pharmacists as step one. Two-way sharing of the electronic cancer pharmaceutical care plan; electronic referral to community pharmacists (step two) once access to EPR is granted; and clinical vignettes to support community pharmacists in providing advice to patients who have SACT toxicity will follow. Scottish cancer care pharmacists, in collaboration with the Scottish Directors of Pharmacy, have started development of nationally agreed pharmaceutical care bundles for community pharmacists to enable local delivery of pharmaceutical care to patients prescribed SACT.
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