QUANTIFYING CLINICAL PHARMACY RESEARCH IN INTENSIVE CARE UNIT: BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS USING VOSviewer

Objective: Clinical pharmacy is a health field that is spreading all over the world. Numerous studies have demonstrated that clinical pharmacy services offered to healthcare providers lead to improved therapeutic outcomes. Intensive care units are the primary clinics where clinical pharmacists work. Due to factors such as variable clinical conditions of patients and the use of multiple medications, drug-related problems are frequently encountered in intensive care units. This situation requires a clinical pharmacist to be included in the intensive care team. Our study aimed to conduct a bibliometric analysis of research on clinical pharmacy in intensive care. Methods: We used all relevant studies from the Web of Science database published between 1981 and 2024 that included the keywords "intensive care" and "clinical pharmacy" for this analysis. The analyses were performed using the VOSviewer (v1.6.20) software. Results: A total of 866 publications were analyzed. The country with the most publications was the United States. Original research articles were the most common publication type, and the most cited article was by Tsuji et al. (n=535). The most frequently used keywords were "critical care", "intensive care unit", "clinical pharmacy", and "clinical pharmacist".Conclusion: Our results show that research on clinical pharmacy in intensive care units is increasing steadily every year and that the services provided in these settings have a beneficial effect on treatment outcomes. Therefore, our study will be an important guide for researchers investigating clinical pharmacy services in intensive care units.