Primary care professionals’ views on joint working with pharmacists to optimise asthma control: Results from the IPCRG research school 2023

Introduction: Asthma is a chronic airway disease that affects 262 million people worldwide, causing 455,000 deaths/year, due to under-diagnosis or under-treatment. Many patients remain poorly managed. Evidence supports the role of pharmacists in the management of asthma patients but no comparative research across different healthcare contexts exists. Aim: To explore Primary Care Professionals’ (PCP) views on collaborating with pharmacists to optimise asthma control. Methods: A topic guide was developed, piloted and reviewed during the IPCRG Research School 2023. Fifteen research school delegates, representing 9 international health-service contexts, performed one in-depth qualitative interview with a PCP recruited via convenience sampling. Interviews were conducted face-to-face or online, audio-recorded, transcribed and translated verbatim. Analysis followed the thematic approach. Data was double coded, a coding framework discussed and themes identified by conceptual mapping of relationships across codes. Results: Interviewees included 12 doctors and 3 pharmacists (10 females and 5 males) from: the Netherlands (n4), Portugal, Chile, Spain (n2 each), Bangladesh, Brazil, Indonesia, the Kyrgyz Republic and South Africa (n1 each). We identified 5 interlinked themes: uncertainties in shared responsibilities (e.g. providing inhaler technique education), financial and cultural barriers to collaboration, the role of geographical spread of services in the ability to collaborate, interdisciplinary training needs and guidance use and communication barriers (including sharing patient data without compromising data security and how to optimise communication pathways between doctors and pharmacists). Conclusions: This pilot study shows it is feasible to co-produce a topic guide and for delegates to independently collect data before coding and analysing data as a collaborative effort. Despite differences in healthcare organisation, we identified common barriers and facilitators to better collaboration between doctors and pharmacists. Whilst better doctor-pharmacist collaboration was viewed as helpful for integrated patient care, teamwork and health system organisational barriers need to be overcome.