Summary of research study characteristics
| Reference | Population | Intervention | Study design | Outcome measures |
| Quantitative controlled studies | ||||
| Howard 201413 | Pharmacists delivering intervention | IT-enabled pharmacist-led review to reduce medication errors | Cluster RCT (PINCER trial) | Time taken to complete reviews; recommended interventions and whether they were implemented |
| Peek 202017 | General practice patients with one or more risk factors for hazardous prescribing or inadequate blood test monitoring | Pharmacist-led Safety Medication dASHboard (SMASH) intervention | Interrupted time series analysis | Rates (prevalence) of potentially hazardous prescribing and inadequate blood-test monitoring |
| Rodgers 202218 | General practices in the East Midlands | Pharmacist-led IT intervention (PINCER) | Multiple interrupted time series | Indicators of potentially hazardous prescribing |
| Syafhan 202119 | Patients in participating GP practices at risk of MRPs | Pharmacist-supplemented care focusing on medication optimisation | Individual RCT | Number of medication-related problems (MRPs) and medication inappropriateness plus clinical outcomes and costs |
| Quantitative uncontrolled studies | ||||
| Alves 201921 | Care home residents | Medication review by primary care pharmacists linked to GP practices | Service evaluation (5-year uncontrolled study) | Interventions by pharmacist (including deprescribing and changes to prescriptions) |
| Baqir 201722 | Care home residents | Medication review by pharmacist with or without GP | Retrospective analysis of data from QI programme | Number and type of medications stopped |
| Thayer 202125 | Care home residents with intellectual disabilities | Collaborative service initiative involving community pharmacists and a specialist mental health pharmacist providing review of medicines and lifestyle risk factors | Service evaluation | Pharmacist interventions /recommendations and acceptance by GPs and psychiatrists |
| Twigg 201526 | Patients over 65 prescribed four or more medications | Community pharmacist consultation including medication review using STOPP/START rules | Service evaluation | Number of recommendations; falls, medication adherence, quality of life and costs at 6 months |
| Qualitative/mixed methods | ||||
| Alharthi 202320 | Care home residents | Deprescribing by pharmacist-independent prescriber | Qualitative interviews with participants in a cluster RCT (CHIPPS study) | Barriers and facilitators to deprescribing |
| Birt 202123 | Care home residents | Pharmacist-independent prescribers responsible for medicines management (CHIPPS) | Mixed methods process evaluation | PIP activities, perceived benefits and barriers to implementation |
| Jeffries 201814 | Pharmacists delivering intervention, GPs and CCG staff | Pharmacist-led intervention involving the use of an electronic audit and feedback surveillance dashboard to identify patients potentially at risk of hazardous prescribing or monitoring of medicines in general practice | Qualitative interviews | Themes related to implementation of the intervention and role of practice pharmacists and others |
| Jeffries 201715 | Stakeholders in general practice and CCG | Electronic medicines optimisation system | Qualitative realist evaluation | Suggestions to support implementation of the system |
| Lane 202024 | Doctors, pharmacists, care-home managers and staff, residents and relatives | Pharmacist-independent prescriber service | Qualitative focus groups and interviews | Perceived benefits of the service and barriers and facilitators to implementation |
| Madden 202216 | Pharmacists working in general practice within PCNs | Structured medication review (SMR) service within PCNs | Qualitative interview study | Themes related to early implementation of SMR service |
CCG, clinical commissioning group; PCNs, primary care networks; RCT, randomised controlled trial.