The role of the pharmacist during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic: an updated scoping review

Abstract Objective To identify new articles that describe services provided by pharmacists during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods An update scoping review was conducted in MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, LILACS, and Google Scholar between 21 May 2020 and 31 May 2021. Study selection and data extraction were performed by two independent authors. DEPICT v. 2 was used to characterize the components of pharmacists’ interventions. It was also verified whether the articles evaluated outcomes of care. Key findings A total of 8983 records were identified, of which 120 met the inclusion criteria. The hospital was the workplace of the pharmacist most often described (55%). The majority of articles (73.3%) described the main domains of DEPICT v.2. Pharmacists provided interventions for patients (27.5%), healthcare professionals (25.8%), both (34.2%), individually (84.2%), through face-to-face contact (44.2%), and followed by telephone (41.7%). The main actions included patient counseling (56.7%), drug supply management (42.5%), and drug information for healthcare professionals (40.8%). Less than half of the articles (36.6%) evaluated the dimension “outcomes of care” of the study population. Conclusion Although most of the articles reported the pharmacists’ interventions, the description is still not satisfactory. In addition, the majority of articles focused solely on the dimension “process of care”. Future research should provide more detailed descriptions of the pharmacists’ interventions and assess the effectiveness of their interventions.