Tribune News Network
Doha
Qatar University’s CPH MSc graduate in clinical pharmacy and practice Alaa Soliman conducted a study to establish a critical evaluation method for clinical pharmacokinetics research, the first of its kind in the world, in her master’s thesis which she recently successfully defended virtually because of the suspension of student classes and precautionary measures to prevent the coronavirus (COVID-19). There is a knowledge gap, as there is no available clinical pharmacokinetics critical assessment tool that helps clinicians assess the quality of the published studies in this field.
Titled ‘Strengthening the Quality of Clinical Pharmacokinetic Studies: Development and Validation of a Critical Appraisal Tool for Clinical Pharmacokinetic Research’, the project aimed at identifying quality indicators of clinical pharmacokinetic studies to be used to develop a valid and reliable critical assessment tool for assessing the quality of clinical pharmacokinetic studies. This research was performed under the supervision of Dr Ousama Rachid, CPH Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and co-supervised by Dr Shane Pawluk, Clinical Associate Professor, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of British Columbia, Canada, and Dr. Kyle Wilby, Associate Professor of Pharmacy Education, School of Pharmacy, University of Otago, New Zealand,.
The project included a systematic review to identify quality markers for clinical pharmacokinetic studies, followed by a modified Delphi process to reach expert consensus on the questions raised by the identified quality markers to develop a critical assessment tool for clinical pharmacokinetic studies. Finally, a psychometric analysis was conducted to evaluate the validity and reliability of the developed tool.
This project is in line with the Qatar National Strategy for 2030: improving the quality of research to improve the effectiveness and quality of care provided to patients. In addition, this tool will be used by different end-users around the world once it is validated and published It will guide researchers on the most important quality markers they need to consider while conducting their research as well as reporting them in addition to the ClinPK Statement Reporting Guidelines. It will guide policy makers such as the World Health Organizations or the Food and Drug Administration to take decisions on the approval of medicines to be used for the treatment of various diseases. The results of this research project are very timely, as they can be specifically used in critical conditions such as the current Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic to help health care providers make rational decisions about drugs that can be used in specific patient groups. Additionally, it will improve students’ knowledge in different medical universities around the world about the quality markers that they should consider to evaluate the quality of published clinical pharmacokinetics studies.
The systematic review of the project was presented at the Jordan ASU-Fourth Postgraduate Conference, which took place on January 5 and 6, 2019 at Applied Science Private University, the first place in the Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Practice oral presentation competition. This work was made possible by the Student Grant awards [QUST-2-CPH-2018] from Qatar University.
Dr Ousama noted that "the scientific community lacks a tool for criticising pharmacokinetic studies. Surprisingly, many of these published studies, including clinical trials, suffer from poor study design, lack of methodology and minimal reporting of basic pharmacokinetic parametres. Availability of a valid and reliable critical assessment tool specifically designed for pharmacokinetic studies would help to make rational choices about drugs and improve the delivery of health care. A wide range of end-users can benefit from this highly sought-after tool developed by Alaa, which includes health care providers, pharmaceutical companies, educators and health policy makers.”
MSc student Alaa mentioned that early plans are very important and that the College of Pharmacy at Qatar University taught research skills to students during the bachelor’s degree, "it helped me to decide to do my masters in Pharmacokinetics. It was not an easy, however, I kept remembering myself that I should not quit because our countries deserve from us as researchers to make them a leader in this field. This critical time of COVD-19 pandemic proves that every country is looking for researchers in the laboratory or their laptops specifically in the medical field to come up with a solution that helps in saving people’s lives and country economics. Furthermore, faculty members of the College of Pharmacy were as helpful and supportive to us as master students to overcome difficulties. I was so lucky to have supportive supervisors who helped me a lot to come up with this tool. Additionally, the college of pharmacy always supports us by providing us with different resources and grants to conduct our research and supporting us to present our projects at different international conferences and scientific journals.”
Doha
Qatar University’s CPH MSc graduate in clinical pharmacy and practice Alaa Soliman conducted a study to establish a critical evaluation method for clinical pharmacokinetics research, the first of its kind in the world, in her master’s thesis which she recently successfully defended virtually because of the suspension of student classes and precautionary measures to prevent the coronavirus (COVID-19). There is a knowledge gap, as there is no available clinical pharmacokinetics critical assessment tool that helps clinicians assess the quality of the published studies in this field.
Titled ‘Strengthening the Quality of Clinical Pharmacokinetic Studies: Development and Validation of a Critical Appraisal Tool for Clinical Pharmacokinetic Research’, the project aimed at identifying quality indicators of clinical pharmacokinetic studies to be used to develop a valid and reliable critical assessment tool for assessing the quality of clinical pharmacokinetic studies. This research was performed under the supervision of Dr Ousama Rachid, CPH Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and co-supervised by Dr Shane Pawluk, Clinical Associate Professor, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of British Columbia, Canada, and Dr. Kyle Wilby, Associate Professor of Pharmacy Education, School of Pharmacy, University of Otago, New Zealand,.
The project included a systematic review to identify quality markers for clinical pharmacokinetic studies, followed by a modified Delphi process to reach expert consensus on the questions raised by the identified quality markers to develop a critical assessment tool for clinical pharmacokinetic studies. Finally, a psychometric analysis was conducted to evaluate the validity and reliability of the developed tool.
This project is in line with the Qatar National Strategy for 2030: improving the quality of research to improve the effectiveness and quality of care provided to patients. In addition, this tool will be used by different end-users around the world once it is validated and published It will guide researchers on the most important quality markers they need to consider while conducting their research as well as reporting them in addition to the ClinPK Statement Reporting Guidelines. It will guide policy makers such as the World Health Organizations or the Food and Drug Administration to take decisions on the approval of medicines to be used for the treatment of various diseases. The results of this research project are very timely, as they can be specifically used in critical conditions such as the current Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic to help health care providers make rational decisions about drugs that can be used in specific patient groups. Additionally, it will improve students’ knowledge in different medical universities around the world about the quality markers that they should consider to evaluate the quality of published clinical pharmacokinetics studies.
The systematic review of the project was presented at the Jordan ASU-Fourth Postgraduate Conference, which took place on January 5 and 6, 2019 at Applied Science Private University, the first place in the Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Practice oral presentation competition. This work was made possible by the Student Grant awards [QUST-2-CPH-2018] from Qatar University.
Dr Ousama noted that "the scientific community lacks a tool for criticising pharmacokinetic studies. Surprisingly, many of these published studies, including clinical trials, suffer from poor study design, lack of methodology and minimal reporting of basic pharmacokinetic parametres. Availability of a valid and reliable critical assessment tool specifically designed for pharmacokinetic studies would help to make rational choices about drugs and improve the delivery of health care. A wide range of end-users can benefit from this highly sought-after tool developed by Alaa, which includes health care providers, pharmaceutical companies, educators and health policy makers.”
MSc student Alaa mentioned that early plans are very important and that the College of Pharmacy at Qatar University taught research skills to students during the bachelor’s degree, "it helped me to decide to do my masters in Pharmacokinetics. It was not an easy, however, I kept remembering myself that I should not quit because our countries deserve from us as researchers to make them a leader in this field. This critical time of COVD-19 pandemic proves that every country is looking for researchers in the laboratory or their laptops specifically in the medical field to come up with a solution that helps in saving people’s lives and country economics. Furthermore, faculty members of the College of Pharmacy were as helpful and supportive to us as master students to overcome difficulties. I was so lucky to have supportive supervisors who helped me a lot to come up with this tool. Additionally, the college of pharmacy always supports us by providing us with different resources and grants to conduct our research and supporting us to present our projects at different international conferences and scientific journals.”