Matthew J Witry

University of Iowa | UI · Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science

Background Texas has passed legislation to increase access to naloxone, the opioid overdose antidote, allowing pharmacists to dispense by standing order without an outside prescription. Given this added responsibility, there is a need to assess real-world counseling provided by pharmacists when dispensing naloxone. Objectives Assess naloxone acces...

Background: Pharmacy employers want to improve pharmacists' job satisfaction, but ratings of job satisfaction are highly subjective, as evaluating job satisfaction involves weighing simultaneously the importance of multiple correlated determinants that are often perceived unequally. Objectives: To 1) describe the application of relative importan...

This study applied a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to better understand pharmacy workplace wellbeing and resilience using respondents’ written comments along with a blend of the researchers’ understanding of the phenomenon and the published literature. Our goal was to apply this understanding to recommendations for the pharmacy workforce an...

Objectives To evaluate the reporting quality for a sample of community pharmacy qualitative research articles based on the Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR) guidelines, data interpretation and use of theory. Methods A systematic literature search was conducted using Ovid MEDLINE to identify qualitative research related to communi...

Background The majority of pharmacists in the United States are women and the profession is becoming more racially diverse. The recent increase in political and social movements in the United States have heightened our awareness of the importance of better understanding the experiences of underrepresented individuals and groups. Little is known abo...

Objective The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in health care workers experiencing temporary or permanent changes in employment due to layoffs, quits, and postpandemic increased job demand. Analyzing the association of the COVID-19 pandemic with employment changes and results of changes for practicing pharmacists and understanding the associations with d...

Background: To better address their patients’ needs, community pharmacists are expanding from their traditional role of dispensing to managing medications and providing other care. Objective: This study characterized services reported by pharmacists practicing in community pharmacy settings in the 2019 National Pharmacist Workforce Study (NPWS). Me...

Objectives: Attitudes and skills reflecting ACPE Standard 4 (ACPE S4) remain an important component of pharmacy education. The objectives of this study were 1) explore student perspectives on the importance of ACPE-S4 key elements and 2) identify experiences that students identified as supporting ACPE S4 attitude and skill development. Methods:...

Background: Employers and pharmacies are challenged by a complex system for prescription payment. Cost-plus direct contracts for prescriptions and bundled services may yield benefits. Objectives: To 1) explore direct contracting using multi-stakeholder interviews, 2) compare employer costs and employee copays for 6-months of prescription charges...

Mixed methods research is increasingly used to investigate complex issues in health and healthcare. Purposeful integration of the qualitative and quantitative strands has a significant potential to yield insights that exceed the value of a study's constituent qualitative and quantitative components alone. The philosophical foundations of mixed meth...

BACKGROUND: Specialty drugs are identified by high monthly costs and complexity of administration. Payers use utilization management strategies, including prior authorization and separate tiers with higher cost sharing, to control spending. These strategies can negatively impact patients' health outcomes through treatment initiation delays, medicat...

Objective: The objectives of this study were to (1) quantify the perceived importance of and comfort with the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education Standard 4 (ACPE-S4) key elements, (2) describe how preceptors promote and assess key elements, and (3) describe preceptor perceptions of student key element skill demonstration. Methods: This...

Objectives: This paper explores (1) the systems and processes older adults use to manage medications at home, and (2) the well-being goals of personal interest that motivate them. Methods: Qualitative interviews were conducted in the homes of 12 older adults in a small city in the Midwest United States. Interviews were analyzed using inductive t...

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is an infection of the liver, which contributes to over 15,000 deaths in the United States annually. When treated, HCV has a 90% or greater cure rate, however testing for HCV remains low. Objectives: To assess patient perspectives on HCV screenings in the community pharmacy setting including awareness of scree...

Introduction: Community pharmacies currently offer Medicare Part D consultation services, often at no-cost. Despite facilitating plan-switching behavior, identifying potential cost-savings, and increasing medication adherence, patient uptake of these services remains low. Objectives: To investigate patient preferences for specific service-offeri...

Background Levels of stress and burnout continue to rise amongst healthcare workers. In addition to systemic and institution-level changes to healthcare practice environments, well-being interventions, resources, and support to assist healthcare providers are necessary. Meditation practices like Heart Rhythm Meditation (HRM) may provide benefits to...

Prescription drug monitoring programs are implemented through individual state policies and are one solution to curb the opioid crisis. The objectives of this study are to: (1) describe the multidisciplinary experiences using this program in practice; (2) identify limitations of the program and the desired features for improvement; and (3) characte...

Background A variety of services exit to assist eligible beneficiaries select Medicare Part D insurance plans; however, selecting an optimal plan remains a challenge. While patients would benefit from evaluating and switching their Medicare Part D plan on a yearly basis, few choose to do so. Objective The objective of this study was to describe th...

Background: Pre-visit planning entails completing necessary tasks prior to clinic appointments. Community pharmacists (CPs) have unique knowledge about patients' medication use but do not routinely provide drug therapy reviews before clinic visits. Objectives: (1) Create and implement a business partnership between a CP and family medicine clinic (...

Background Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) is a safe and effective non-prescription tobacco cessation treatment. While most community-based pharmacists periodically provide patient education regarding NRT, there is a gap in real-world evidence assessing the counseling provided. Objectives Assess community pharmacist counseling regarding NRT in...

Objectives: To evaluate providing an at-home medication disposal kit on opioid disposal behaviors. Self-report of prior disposal behaviors also was assessed to describe the sample. Design: Pilot study with randomization. Surgery outpatients were counseled on medication disposal by a pharmacist from the outpatient community pharmacy at the bedsid...

Purpose The purpose of this study was to describe the demographics, training, clinical specialties, and practice activities of ambulatory care pharmacists using data from the 2019 National Pharmacist Workforce Study (NPWS). Summary The 2019 NPWS was conducted using a 3-contact electronic survey sent to a random sample of 94,803 pharmacists using t...

Background Recent state-level legislation allows pharmacies to implement protocols for the testing and treatment of influenza and Group A streptococcal pharyngitis infections, which may improve access. Objectives This study evaluated patient perspectives on testing and treatment of influenza or strep in the pharmacy and evaluated patient acceptanc...

Background The glass ceiling is a metaphor used to describe an invisible barrier that prevents an underrepresented group from rising beyond a certain level. Among pharmacists, underrepresented groups face various barriers and limitations to their successes. Objectives The purpose of this study was to apply the intersectionality framework to data c...

Background Community pharmacies currently offer Medicare Part D (MPD) consultation services to help eligible beneficiaries select prescription medication insurance. Despite these service offerings, there is a paucity of information on patient preferences for these service offerings and optimal service delivery from the patient perspective. Methods...

Prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) are a public health tool for prescribers and pharmacists to monitor controlled substance use at the patient level. The objectives of this study were to (1) assess attitudes about the PDMP and perceived changes in experience and decision-making following integration into the electronic health record (EHR...

Background Job stress, burnout, and fulfillment can be modeled using the Job Demands and Resources Model (JD-R). Objective This study explores the relationship between job demands and burnout and professional fulfillment in pharmacists, and the moderating role of job resources. Methods Data were obtained from the 2019 National Pharmacist Workforc...

Most research on pharmacist professional wellbeing has focused on measuring burnout. However, using valid and reliable instruments to assess professional fulfillment in pharmacists can expand understanding of pharmacists’ professional wellbeing. This study aimed to (1) establish the validity of the Professional Fulfillment Index (PFI) for a sample...

Objective. To quantify student pharmacists' communication ability based on scores from standardized patient (SP) communication rubrics, describe and categorize SP comments about student empathy, and test the relationship between students' communication scores and empathy.Methods. A concurrent mixed methods research design was used to assess a grade...

Introduction For patients using QTc prolonging medications, the health care system is challenged to mitigate the risk of drug‐induced long‐QT syndrome (DiLQTS) and sudden cardiac death (SCD). Community pharmacists (CPs) receive QTc alerts when dispensing but intervene infrequently. Personal electrocardiogram (ECG) monitors are a new, inexpensive te...

Background Prior national surveys have quantified unemployment in the pharmacy workforce, and recent surveys have occurred in a changing environment, with increased numbers of pharmacists in the labor market. Objectives We sought to investigate the rate of unemployment and situations of unemployed pharmacists. Methods Data from the 2019 National...

Background and purpose It is unclear how clinical reasoning is impacted by a single advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) and how preceptors can further develop these skills. Educational activity and setting Students completing an APPE within four sites were invited to participate. To assess clinical reasoning skills, students completed a 3...

Objectives: This study aimed to 1) determine the validity of the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI) for use in the assessment of burnout in a sample of pharmacists using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and 2) use the CBI items and other measures of work-life to assess burnout in pharmacists employed in various types of practice. Methods: A c...

Background Patient experience with community pharmacy services can be informed by human-centered design principles and approaches. Pharmacy services may benefit from detailed evaluations of consumer experience and patient-centered service design. Objectives To use an online journey mapping platform to understand the patient experience with selecti...

National Pharmacist Workforce Studies (NPWS) have been conducted in the U.S. every five years since 2000. This article describes the online survey methods used for the latest NPWS conducted in 2019 and provides an assessment for nonresponse bias. Three waves of emails containing a link to the online survey were sent to a random sample of about 96,0...

Background: There is a need to train healthcare professionals to provide first aid to people experiencing a mental health crisis. Research testing the association between Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) training and the use of MHFA behaviors could provide evidence of program effectiveness in the pharmacy setting. Objectives: The objectives of thi...

Spurred by the value it can add, the use of qualitative research methods has been steadily growing by social pharmacy researchers around the globe, either separately or as part of mixed methods research projects. Given this increase, it is important to provide guidance to assist researchers in ensuring quality when employing such methods. This comm...

The Home Medication Experience Questionnaire (HOME-Qv2) was developed to identify patient medication experience issues for pharmacist intervention. The study objectives were to (1) evaluate patient responses to the HOME-Qv2 medication experience questionnaire and (2) describe recommendations made by pharmacists in response to the identified medicat...

Background: Pharmacy students are subject to high levels of stress. An emerging way student pharmacists and pharmacists have reported managing stress and developing professional resilience is through mindfulness. Objectives: To 1) describe how student pharmacists appraise the threat of stress; and 2) identify student perceptions of mindfulness-orie...

Introduction Student pharmacists, in their roles as trainees, technicians, and peers, may interact with people displaying suicide warning signs. Providing suicide gatekeeping training to student pharmacists may prepare them to engage people at risk. Measuring the extent to which student pharmacists have encountered people displaying warning signs o...

In the U.S., an estimated one in five individuals experience a mental illness annually which contribute to significant human and economic cost. Pharmacists serving in a public health capacity are positioned to provide first aid level intervention to people experiencing a mental health crisis. Research on pharmacy professionals (pharmacists, technic...

The Home Medication Experience Questionnaire (HOME-Q) was developed to systematically gather information on the medication experience of patients. The objectives of this study were to (1) assess the frequencies of medication experience issues for a sample of patients and (2) report pharmacist recommendations to address issues and patient implementa...

Background/Objective: Findings from the 2009 and 2014 National Pharmacist Workforce Surveys showed that approximately 40% of U.S. pharmacists devoted their time primarily to medication providing, 40% contributed a significant portion of their time to patient care service provision, and the remaining 20% contributed most of their time to other healt...

Introduction Pharmacist‐physician collaboration has shown positive results in improving patient outcomes. Chronic care management (CCM) is a reimbursable service for Medicare beneficiaries in the community setting which includes comprehensive care management and other activities. The pharmacist contribution to CCM services and their associated impa...

Poster for the 2020 American Pharmacists Association Annual Meeting

Background Falls in older adults are a serious public health concern. They increase health care expenditure and account for more than $30 billion in direct medical costs. Medication-related problems can contribute to fall risk, and community-based pharmacists are well positioned to intervene, given their role in monitoring ongoing medications. Obj...

Background Suicide has been labeled a public health crisis. Training students in suicide prevention has been recommended. The objectives of this study were 1) test confidence and knowledge change associated with student pharmacists undergoing a discussion session led by a psychiatric pharmacist followed by Question Persuade Refer (QPR) training and...

Introduction A range of approaches are needed to bolster the mental health and well-being of pharmacists and student pharmacists. Commentary In recent years, medical and nursing educators have been training students to use mindfulness-oriented meditation (MOM) techniques such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) for mental health, wellness...

Background: Underutilization of Prescription monitoring programs (PMP), especially in states where participation is voluntary could limit their impact against opioid epidemic. Objectives: To (1) examine PMP use among Iowa healthcare providers (HCPs); (2) identify factors prompting and impeding PMP use, and (3) assess beliefs toward mandating PMP us...

Objectives: To describe the drug therapy problems (DTPs) identified for patients enrolled in an Appointment Based Model (ABM) for medication synchronization, describe the pharmacist-delivered clinical interventions, and assess what patient characteristics are associated with the number of DTPs identified. Methods: A cross-sectional chart review of...

Introduction: Controlling diabetes typically requires self-management and medications. Community pharmacists are positioned to support patients with both. Methods: This study assessed the feasibility and potential benefit of combining pharmacist-provided group diabetes education (up to eight sessions) and medication synchronization using a three-gr...

Background: Prescription monitoring programs (PMPs) can provide health care professionals with valuable information. However, few studies have explored providers' decision making for accessing PMPs. Aims: This study aimed to identify provider characteristics and situational factors most influencing perceived importance of consulting the PMP for...

Background: The impact of multidisciplinary interventions to support patients moving from hospital to home have generally demonstrated a benefit. However, the role of community pharmacists is still being defined. Objectives: To review, with the use of the Coleman Care Transitions Intervention (CTI) pillars, the interventions performed by communi...

Background and purpose Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the US. Frontline health professionals like pharmacists can be trained to intervene with patients displaying warning signs of suicide. The purpose of this activity was to introduce student pharmacists to suicide prevention concepts. Educational activity and setting A social work...

Background: In practice, warfarin-treated patients may share insight regarding their international normalized ratio (INR) value before it is measured. The accuracy and potential utility of these predictions have not been evaluated. Objective: To (1) test how accurately patients can predict their INR; (2) identify demographic factors associated w...

Background Type 2 Diabetes is a significant public health issue, and pharmacists have demonstrated their ability to intervene and improve clinical markers. Fee for service payment for diabetes education has been challenging to obtain, even for certified pharmacists.

Aims and objectives The purpose of this analysis is to describe and explore characteristics associated with oral dietary supplement use and identify potential interactions with prescription medications in a sample of rural community‐dwelling older adults. Background Older adults use polypharmacy to help manage chronic diseases. Due to health care...

Background and purpose: Medication adherence is perhaps the most prominent quality measure applied to pharmacies. Teaching students about nonadherence usually takes the form of lectures and simulated pill taking exercises. While these approaches have value, activities are needed in other aspects of medication adherence. Educational activity and s...

An interactive presentation on the use of qualitative reporting guidelines to improve the quality of research in pharmacy. Limitations of the guidelines also discussed. Thoughts on other ways to improve quality are presented.

Key Findings • Patients were very satisfied with community pharmacist provided group diabetes education (DM-Ed) and enhanced medication synchronization • DM-Ed group showed improved DM self-management activities and beliefs about medicines vs control • Barriers were encountered to fee for service reimbursement for Medicaid, Medicare, Employer, and...

Objectives: To 1) identify specific patient barriers and pharmacist interventions to medication adherence by means of the Drug Adherence Work-Up (DRAW) tool; and 2) measure patient adherence to antihypertensive and antidiabetic medications by calculating proportion of days covered (PDC) before and after pharmacist telephone adherence interview. D...

Background: Telemedicine and electronic health (eHealth) interventions have been proposed to improve management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) for patients between traditional clinic and hospital visits to reduce complications. However, the effectiveness of such interventions may depend on patients' comfort with technology. Objec...

Background and purpose Didactic approaches for instructing students about diabetes nutrition and self-management have been described previously in the pharmacy education literature. There is a need for diabetes nutrition active learning approaches that can be incorporated into the advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) setting so students can...

For patients with diabetes, suboptimal medication adherence contributes to disease progression, complications, and increased healthcare costs. Identification of, and intervention for patient-identified reasons for nonadherence are essential to improving medication adherence. This prospective, quality improvement study was conducted at an independen...

Objectives: To assess the impact of a community pharmacist-delivered care transition intervention on 30-day hospital readmissions. Setting: A single private 263-bed hospital in the Midwest United States and 12 partnering community pharmacies, 1 serving as primary pharmacy. Practice innovation: Adult general medicine inpatients were evaluated b...

Objective. To review published educational interventions focusing on medication non-adherence. Methods. A literature search was performed of educational articles on the topic of medication adherence. Data on interventions and learning assessments were abstracted for relevant studies meeting search criteria. Results. Twenty studies met inclusion cri...

Objectives: To describe pharmacists' self-reported refill monitoring activities and test for demographic and work setting differences that contribute to variation. Methods: This study used a cross-sectional survey design. A 4-contact survey was mailed to 599 community pharmacists randomly selected from a list provided by the state board of pharm...

Background Medication nonadherence is a significant public health problem. Community pharmacists are positioned to intervene, however, the process is not well understood. Objective To classify and quantify the reasons for nonadherence documented by community pharmacists. Methods A retrospective content analysis of pharmacist notes related to nona...

Background: There is increasing attention on the role of community pharmacists in improving medication adherence. There is a need to better understand pharmacist attitudes and experiences related to this role. Objective: To assess community pharmacist perceptions of patient reasons for non-adherence, characterize the adherence beliefs of communi...

Abstract Background: Medication synchronization is a service offered by an increasing number of community pharmacies that aligns refilling of a patient’s multiple medications. Purported benefits include increased adherence and improved dispensing efficiency. Objective: To assess community pharmacist agreement with a set of declarative statements ab...

Background: Medication synchronization is a service offered by an increasing number of community pharmacies that aligns refilling of a patient’s multiple medications. Purported benefits include increased adherence and improved dispensing efficiency. Objective: To assess community pharmacist agreement with a set of declarative statements about medi...

Introduction: Information continuity is critical to person-centered care when patients receive care from multiple healthcare systems. Patients can access their electronic health record data through patient portals to facilitate information exchange. This pilot was developed to improve care continuity for rural Veterans by (1) promoting the use of...

A concerning level of discrepancies exists between the VA and non-VA medication lists of dual use veterans, raising the risk of adverse drug events.

Objectives: Consumer-mediated health information exchange (HIE) is one of the three types of HIE designated by the Office of the National Coordinator. HIE is intended to improve the quality of care while reducing cost, yet empirical support for this claim is mixed. Future research should identify the contexts whereby HIE is most effective. Method...