Ahmad Alamer

• PharmD, BC-ADM
• Professor (Assistant) at Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University

Background Patients with liver disease express multiple pathophysiological variations that alter the pharmacokinetics of numerous drugs. At this time, there is insufficient evidence about the proper dosing of vancomycin in patients with liver disease. This study aimed to assess the risk of acute kidney injury (AKI) during vancomycin therapy and ide...

Background Crohn’s disease (CD) is a debilitating gastrointestinal disease with complex etiology. Although effective, recipients of anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) agents may experience primary or secondary nonresponse, necessitating alternative treatments. This study is intended to compare the short-term effectiveness of ustekinumab and vedolizum...

Background Biological therapies are effective for psoriasis, but patient responses vary, often requiring therapy switching or discontinuation. Objectives To identify physicians’ prescribing patterns of biological therapies at a referral tertiary center in Saudi Arabia and assess the probability of biologic persistence following treatment initiatio...

Background: Topical corticosteroids are commonly used to treat several skin conditions, most notably atopic dermatitis. Many studies have found that patients lack knowledge about the safety, potency, and appropriate use of topical corticosteroids. This can be due to ineffective education by pharmacists and other healthcare providers. This study aim...

Purpose Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) doubles the morbidity of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and leads to a 50% increase in mortality compared to the general population. This study aims to estimate the CVD incidence among RA patients in Saudi Arabia (SA), vital for assessing CVD burdens within this group. Patients and Methods This retrospective study t...

Background: Procalcitonin (PCT) has been used as a biomarker to guide antibiotic therapy in various patient populations. However, its role in optimizing antibiotic use in COVID-19 patients has not been well studied to date. Thus, we aimed to evaluate the use of serial PCT monitoring as an antimicrobial stewardship tool for COVID-19 patients. Method...

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a global threat to public health, with over 766 million confirmed cases and more than 6 million reported deaths. Patients with a smoking history are at a greater risk of severe respiratory complications and death due to COVID-19. This study investigated the association between smoking history and a...

Background Despite the evolution of therapeutic strategies for Crohn’s disease (CD), many patients exhibit resistance to numerous biological agents, necessitating a transition to other advanced therapies. Therefore, the early and accurate prediction of the response to biological agents in treating CD is crucial. We sought to evaluate potentially us...

Background Despite effective anti-TNF agents in treating Crohn’s disease (CD), some recipients experience primary or secondary non-responses, requiring alternative options. Ustekinumab and vedolizumab have not been compared in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) among CD population. Thus, we used real-world data to compare ustekinumab and vedolizum...

This study examined the level of adherence to self-care behaviors among individuals with type 2 diabetes in Saudi Arabia and its connection with depression and demographic factors. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among diabetes patients using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) to measure depression and the Summary of Diabetes Self-Care...

Purpose This study investigated the access to and disparities in telemedicine use among patients with chronic conditions in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Patients and Methods A cross-sectional study of randomly selected primary healthcare centers was conducted to ensure that each of the 17 municipalities in Riyadh were represented. Three hundred and forty...

Several studies have found that telemedicine has the potential to enhance the outcomes of patients with diabetes. This study aimed to determine the impact of telemedicine on the clinical outcomes of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Saudi Arabia. We conducted a cross-sectional study among T2DM patients in selected primary healthcare...

Background: Career planning is important to student pharmacists and pharmacy schools due to slower job growth for pharmacists over the last decade. Understanding students' career interests can help colleges and schools of pharmacy develop targeted career planning, as well as meaningful curricular and co-curricular activities. Objectives: This study...

Telepharmacy is a practical part of telemedicine that refers to providing pharmaceutical services within the scope of the pharmacist's obligations while maintaining a temporal and spatial distance between patients, users of health services, and healthcare professionals. The present study was a cross-sectional study conducted among community pharmac...

Telepharmacy is a technology-based service that provides promoted services such as counseling, medication administration and compounding, drug therapy monitoring, and prescription review. It is unclear whether hospital pharmacists possess the necessary knowledge, attitudes, and willingness to practice telepharmacy. The current study sought to inves...

Introduction: Medication errors (MEs) are a huge burden on any healthcare system and have been associated with significant morbidity and mortality. The medical literature reported heavily on MEs but lacked focus on analyzing high-risk medications such as antimicrobials. Research design and methods: This was a retrospective analysis of the MEs da...

Objective: Using supervised machine learning algorithms (SMLAs), we built models to predict the probability of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) patients on insulin pump therapy for meeting insulin pump self-management behavioral (IPSMB) criteria and achieving good glycemic response within six months. Methods: This was a single-center retrospectiv...

Purpose: We aimed to evaluate the cost effectiveness of Favipiravir treatment versus SC in moderately to severely ill COVID-19 patients from the Saudi healthcare payer perspective. Methods: We used the patient-level simulation method to simulate a cohort of 415 patients with moderate to severe COVID-19 disease who were admitted to two Saudi COVI...

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic disease with ever-increasing prevalence worldwide. In our study, we evaluated the prevalence of the risk of developing T2DM in Saudi Arabia and investigated associations between that risk and various sociodemographic characteristics. To those ends, a web-based cross-sectional survey of Saudi nationals wi...

Purpose Echinocandins are favored drugs for the treatment of fungal infections. There is growing evidence that obese patients treated with echinocandins have lower exposures due to pharmacokinetic (PK) alterations. We conducted a scoping review to characterize, evaluate, and summarize the available evidence on echinocandins exposures in obese patie...

Background Owing to the excellent safety and efficacy profile of the tenofovir alafenamide (TAF) over tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF), it is the preferred prodrug of tenofovir (TFV) implicated in the management of people living with HIV (PLWH). PLWH are more susceptible to having tuberculosis (TB) and therefore, rifampicin (RIF) use as a key co...

This study aimed to evaluate the risk of serum tobramycin concentrations exceeding therapeutic levels after administration of calcium sulfate (CaSO4) beads containing either 240 mg or 400 mg tobramycin and 1000 mg vancomycin. This single-center, prospective. This single-center, prospective study included Piedmont Columbus, Regional orthopedic surge...

Background: Diabetes is a health problem that has an enormous and intolerable public health burden on the individual, family, and community. Diabetes affects nearly one-fifth of adults in Saudi Arabia and is expected to double by 2030. Aim of the study: The study aims to evaluate the impact of switching patients from conventional basal insulin a...

Background: The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) disease, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus led to a global pandemic. HCQ and FPV were used early in the pandemic as a treatment modality for COVID-19. Various studies evaluated the HCQ and FPV effectiveness, based on the mortality endpoint and showed conflict...

Surgical site infections are among the most prevalent and costly healthcare-associated infections, resulting in poor patient outcomes and even death. Cefazolin is a first-generation cephalosporin antibiotic that is widely used for surgical prophylaxis in a variety of surgical disciplines. Although previous studies showed that cefazolin is effective...

Background Angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitor (ARNI) prescription in the United States remains suboptimal despite strong evidence for efficacy and value in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. Factors responsible for under prescription are not completely understood. Economic limitations may play a disproportionate role in reduced ac...

Background Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) patients are at risk of thrombosis. Literature that compares the effectiveness of enoxaparin to unfractionated heparin (UFH) in COVID-19 patients is scarce. Objective We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of enoxaparin compared with UFH when used at their standard/intermediate dosing in COVID-19 p...

Introduction Thrombotic complications of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have received considerable attention. Although numerous conflicting findings have compared escalated thromboprophylaxis doses with a standard dose to prevent thrombosis, there is a paucity of literature comparing clinical outcomes in three different anticoagulation dosing...

Introduction The significance of diabetes self-management and recent advances in diabetes medications call for healthcare professionals' preparedness in educating patients. This study assessed correlations between student pharmacists' confidence and knowledge of diabetes self-management skills. Methods An online questionnaire was administered to t...

e20502 Background: Patients with stage 1B non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who receive surgical resection are at continued risk of disease recurrence and death after the surgery. Osimertinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor indicated for epidermal growth factor receptor positive (EGFR+) NSCLC, has been used post-operatively as adjunctive therapy to i...

e20505 Background: Patients with surgically resected EGFR+ NSCLC remain at risk of recurrence after surgery. Osimertinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, had been assessed clinically as adjunctive therapy in surgically resected EGFR+ NSCLC including stage 3A. We conducted a cost effectiveness/utility analysis of adjunctive osimertinib therapy in stage...

e20506 Background: Following surgical resection, patients with NSCLC require monitoring due to the risk of recurrence. Studies have demonstrated the clinical benefit of osimertinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, as adjunctive therapy in surgically resected EGFR+ NSCLC, including in stage 2 disease. We performed a cost effectiveness/utility analysis...

BACKGROUND About 5-10% of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infected patients require critical care hospitalization and a variety of respiratory support, including invasive mechanical ventilation. Several nationwide studies from Saudi Arabia have identified common comorbidities but none were focused on mechanically ventilated patients in the Al-A...

Background: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of tocilizumab in mechanically ventilated patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Research design and methods: This retrospective multicenter study included adults (≥18 years), diagnosed with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by real-time polymerase...

Background The treatment of osteoarticular infections in pediatric patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) is a challenging task for the practitioner. The aim of this study is to evaluate cefixime for the treatment of osteoarticular infections in pediatric SCD patients by retrospective design. Methods This study was done in the pediatric hospital...

Background Talimogene laherparepvec (T-VEC) improves overall survival (OS) in unresectable stage IIIB/C-IV melanoma.¹ T-VEC may have synergistic effects with CTLA-4 inhibitors.² In the absence of a trial comparing T-VEC and ipilimumab (T-VEC+IPI) to T-VEC, we applied a novel indirect comparison method using extrapolated OS curves to estimate OS out...

Introduction: The use of the interleukin-6 blocker tocilizumab in critically-ill mechanically ventilated patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is less well studied. Research Question orHypothesis: Is tocilizumab effective in mechanically ventilated COVID-19 patients. Study Design: A multicenter retrospective study conducted in six Sa...

Background & Objectives As intestinal failure (IF) inhibits the digestive system from absorbing nutrients, total parenteral nutrition (TPN) is required to provide all of a person's nutritional demands. In children with malabsorptive conditions like IF, iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is common. This study used a quasi-experimental approach to assess t...

Background & Objectives In late December 2019, an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS COV-2) occurred in the city of Wuhan, the capital of the Hubei province in the central part of the People’s Republic of China (Ren et al., 2020). In Saudi Arabia, the first case of COVID-19 was reported in March 2, 2020. In March 8, 2...

Introduction: Favipiravir is a repurposed drug to treat coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). Due to a lack of available real-world data, we assessed its effectiveness and safety in moderately to critically ill COVID-19 patients. Methods: This retrospective study was conducted in two public/specialty hospitals in Saudi Arabia. We included patients (≥ 18...

Background The pharmacy profession has experienced dramatic shifts in scopes of practice, services offered, and employment opportunities over the last couple decades. At the same time, the number of students graduating from pharmacy school each year has steadily increased. The combined effect of these factors is a tightening labor market. Identific...

Background The uncertainty about COVID-19 outcomes in angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI)/angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB) users continues with contradictory findings. This study aimed to determine the effect of ACEI/ARB use in patients with severe COVID-19. Methods This retrospective cohort study was done in two Saudi public specia...

There has been an increase in the prevalence of gram-positive bacteremia in neonates in the last two decades. However, as a consequence of better care, there has been an increase in the survival of premature neonates. Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) is the most prevalent bacteria, responsible for up to 60% of late-onset sepsis (LOS). Daptom...

Background: The use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) is controversial for treating COVID-19 patients. We aimed to estimate pooled risks of mortality, disease severity, and hospitalization associated with ACEI/ARB use and stratify them by country and country clusters. Methods: We conducte...

The influence of the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented on physical and mental health. This study aimed to determine the impact of the COVID-19 event on mental health among Saudi Arabian females of Riyadh by a cross-sectional study design. The samples of the study were recruited using convenience and snowball sampling methods. The questionnaire is...

Background: The uncertainty about COVID-19 outcomes in angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI)/angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB) users continues with contradictory findings. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of ACEI/ARB use in patients with severe COVID-19. Methods: This retrospective cohort study was done in two Saudi pub...

Short message service (SMS) is easily accessible and potentially an ideal platform for delivering patient-targeted messages. However, an effective SMS dosing strategy is not well established. Our purpose was to evaluate the impact of diabetes self-care promoting messages via non-tailored one-way automated SMS (OASMS) on glycemic control in type 2 d...

Background The use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB) is controversial for treating COVID-19 patients. We aimed to estimate pooled risks of mortality, disease severity, and hospitalization associated with ACEI/ARB use and stratify them by country and country clusters. Methods We conducted a se...

The uncertainty about COVID-19 outcomes in angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI)/angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB) users continues with contradictory findings. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of ACEI/ARB use in patients with severe COVID-19. This retrospective cohort study done in two Saudi public specialty hospitals d...

Objective: The objective was to evaluate the 30-day re-admission predictive performance of the HOSPITAL score and Diabetes Early Re-admission Risk Indicator (DERRI™) in hospitalized diabetes patients. Methods: This was a case-control study in an academic, tertiary center in the United States. Adult hospitalized diabetes patients were randomly iden...

Background: Electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) technology was introduced as an alternative to handwritten prescriptions allowing health care professionals to send prescriptions directly to pharmacies. While the technology has many advantages, such as improving pharmacy workflow and reducing medication errors, some limitations have been realize...

Introduction: The objectives of this retrospective review were to: (a) determine the prevalence of resistant Gram-negative bacteraemia among hospitalized patients; (b) evaluate antibiotic use; (c) determine the time taken for Gram staining to final species identification. Methods: For this retrospective study, information was extracted from pati...