A systematic literature review of pharmacists in general practice in supporting the implementation of shared care agreements (SCA) in primary care

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Background Rising demand for healthcare continues to impact on all sectors of the health service. As a result of the growing ageing population and the burden of chronic disease, healthcare has become more complex, the need for more efficient management of specialist medication across the healthcare interface is of paramount importance. With the rising number of pharmacists working in primary care in clinical roles, is this a role that pharmacist could support to ensure the successful execution of Shared Care Agreement (SCA) in primary care for these patients?Aim of the review Systematic review to identify activities and assess interventions provided by pharmacists in primary care on SCA provision and how it affects health-related quality of life (HRQoL) for patients.MethodThe following electronic databases were systematically searched from the date on inception to January 2020: AMED®, CINAHL®, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR), EMBASE®, EMCARE®, Google Scholar, HMIC®, MEDLINE®, PsycINFO®, Scopus, Web of Science® and grey literature sources were also searched. The search was adapted according to the respective database-specific search tools. It was searched using a combination of medical subject heading terms (MeSH), free-text search terms and Boolean operators.ResultsA total of 6,489 titles/abstracts were screened, and 59 full articles were assessed for eligibility. On examination of full text, no studies met the inclusion criteria for this reviewConclusionThis review highlights the need for further research to evaluate how pharmacists in general practice can support the safe and effective integration of specialist medication in primary care with the use of SCA.