Comparison of Anticancer Drug Preparation Techniques between Chemotherapy Specialist Pharmacists and Non-Chemotherapy Pharmacists Using Eye-Tracking Techniques

Anticancer drug preparation by pharmacists is a critical task directly related to medical incidents. This study examined the factors influencing medical errors in chemotherapy, that is, errors by specialist pharmacists (CPh) and pharmacists in other departments (NCPh), by measuring their gaze during the preparation of anticancer drugs. The eye-tracking results showed that the gazing time of NCPh was significantly longer than that of CPh for items such as “preparation of a closed-system device” and “preparation of the syringe” and all preparation times (P < 0.05). The NCPh were not assigned to prepare drugs on a regular basis, indicating their lack of familiarity with the process. There was no significant difference in gaze ratio between CPh and NCPh. This outcome was suggested to be a result of the use of an anticancer drug preparation support system. The results for the pupil diameter variation rate showed that NCPh were significantly more mydriatic in the “mixing injections” category than CPh. However, CPh tended to be more mydriatic in the “checking” category. CPh exhibited a smooth workflow and focused on the important items to be checked. This study showed that the differences in procedure flow and concentration points may lead to errors. Furthermore, the results are of interest from the perspective of medical incident prevention. They will be useful in identifying potential human factors, such as where the pharmacist focuses their attention by measuring eye movements.

Quality Evaluation of Carnitine for Proper Use of Supplement

In recent years, consumers are becoming more health-conscious. Supplements are becoming popular as they can be purchased easily. In Japan, the “Food with Function Claims” system began in 2015;the market for supplements is expected to continue to expand. However, the use of some supplements has not been supported with sufficient scientific evidence;some products have even caused health problems. In addition, consumers may not be able to make correct decisions based on the information from the Internet. Unlike medicine, the instruction on the usage of supplements is not precise. Therefore, improving the quality of the information on the supplements will become more necessary in the future. This study aims to improve the quality of the information on supplements by surveying the disintegration and dissolution behavior of the carnitine-containing supplements and evaluated their quality. The products tested here were supplements containing commercial carnitine. Disintegration test and dissolution test were conducted according to the Japanese Pharmacopoeia. Carnitine was quantified by high-performance liquid chromatography. The disintegration tests revealed that the products had different disintegration times, varying from 35 to 100 minutes;some products took more than 5 hours to disintegrate. Thus, some products had a slow rise in their dissolution rate. These results suggest that the carnitine-containing supplements used in this study may affect the absorption process. Therefore, in the case of oral administration, the expected effect might not be achieved depending on the product.