Pharmacist-patient communication amid COVID-19 pandemic: A review of available options and potential impact

Abstract

Communication plays a vital role to ensure the safe and effective use of medicines. Nevertheless, movement restriction measures and social distancing policies amid the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may have introduced a significant communication barrier between pharmacists and patients. As such, there is an urgent need for alternative approaches to continue pharmacist-patient communication for pharmaceutical care activities. This narrative review summarized the use of five alternative approaches to replace traditional face-to-face counselling by pharmacists: telephone counselling, videoconference, multimedia-mediated counselling, provision of reading materials, and drug reminder packaging. These five approaches may be used interchangeably on their own or as a model of care where different aspects of each approach may be combined to deliver coherent pharmaceutical care.