The Role of Community Pharmacists in Pharmacovigilance, R&D, Quality Assurance, Regulatory Compliance, and Risk Management in Pharmaceutical Management: A Systematic Literature Review

Background: The goal of this systematic review was to investigate the existing literature on community pharmacists' knowledge, attitudes, roles, and practices concerning pharmaceutical management strategies. The goal was to understand various attributes that influence the engagement of community pharmacists in their support and involvement on pharmacovigilance, research and development (R&D), quality assurance, regulatory compliance, and risk management pharmaceutical management practices. Methods: The researchers searched five scholarly databases, Medline, EMBASE, ProQuest, PubMed, and Scopus for articles to review. The process entailed the use of a wide range of key words and a search string to identify and select suitable studies. The entire study methodology was based on the PRISMA guidelines. A total of 2110 studies emerged on the primary search, and after screening for suitability of inclusion 21 studies were reviewed. Results: Findings showed that community pharmacists possess substantial knowledge on the different pharmaceutical management strategies; pharmacovigilance, research and development (R&D), quality assurance, regulatory compliance, and risk management. Community pharmacists have some knowledge, commitment, and positive attitude for supporting different pharmaceutical management strategies. However, there is still room for improvement as in some areas the knowledge and attitudes that community pharmacists is not sufficient for optimal healthcare outcomes. Conclusions: Stakeholders such as higher education institutions, government agencies, and management teams in pharmacy have a role to play to support better knowledge and attitude to enable community pharmacists to fully engage in roles that support different pharmaceutical managerial strategies.