Changes and Effectiveness of Pharmaceutical Interventions via Tracing Reports Under Enhanced Collaboration Between Hospitals and Community Pharmacies in Outpatient Cancer Pharmacotherapy

In 2016, at Kobe University Hospital, we started collaborations with community pharmacies using the tracing report (TR). Under the promulgation of the Act Partially Amending on Securing Quality, Efficacy, and Safety of Products Including Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices in December 2019 and the revision of medical fees in 2020, the environment of collaboration between hospitals and community pharmacies for outpatient cancer pharmacotherapy has changed. Furthermore, in 2021, the Hyogo Pharmaceutical Association and the Hyogo Hospital Pharmaceutical Association jointly developed a new common TR form focusing on assessing adverse events in cancer pharmacotherapy; this TR is currently being used in our hospital. In this study, we investigated the effects of these environmental changes and the collaboration system on the content of TR and physicians’ responses from January to March in each year of 2019 – 2021, and from June to August in 2022. The number of TRs received in each period remained almost constant; however, the proportion of the telephone follow-up as a means of gathering patient information increased compared with the previous periods. The number of reports on adverse events was also higher alongside the number of physician responses to TR. These results indicate the improved quality of pharmaceutical interventions owing to changes in legislation and reimbursement as well as the introduction of the new TR form.