2.2 Study design and setting
This was a retrospective cohort study conducted in a pharmacist outpatient clinic in a general hospital in Beijing, China. Consecutive patients were enrolled from January 2016 to June 2018. Four pharmacists from the hospital interviewed patients at the pharmacist outpatient clinic. The pharmacists conducted a comprehensive assessment of the patient’s medication. These three MTM pharmacists had completed training program accredited by the American Pharmacists Association, with an average of 10 years of hospital practice experience. The other pharmacist had a physician certificate and was authorized to prescribe.
The inclusion criteria were patients aged ≥ 65 years and with chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases (including hypertension, hyperlipidemia, coronary artery disease and heart failure) or diabetes, osteoporosis, gout. Eligible subjects were performed with MTM services by the pharmacists and had clinical data for at least 2 clinic visits within a consecutive 12-month period after the first MTM visit. These patients were assigned into two groups (pre-intervention group and post-intervention group) based on the date when they accepted the first MTM services in the pharmacist outpatient clinic.