Challenges for expansion of thoracic transplant clinical pharmacy in a developing country: comparison with U.S. accredited centres and call for action

What is known and objective: Clinical pharmacists' involvement in the care of solid organ transplant recipients has been discussed worldwide given its potential to improve clinical outcomes. As thoracic transplant activity grows in Brazil, it is important to understand how pharmacists are inserted in transplant programmes nationwide. We conducted a survey to explore clinical pharmacy activities in thoracic transplant centres in Brazil and compared them with accredited programmes in the United States.

Methods: An electronic questionnaire was distributed to all 40 heart and lung transplant centres registered in the Brazilian Organ Transplantation Agency (ABTO) in May 2019. Survey findings were compared to previously published data from accredited U.S. centres.

Results and discussion: From 22 centre respondents, ten (45.5%) declared not to have a pharmacist at any part of the transplantation process, which translated into 158 (37.6%) transplant recipients without any direct pharmaceutical care. In centres with pharmacists (n = 12), none had a full-time professional dedicated to their heart and/or lung programmes. When compared to U.S. centres, there was a significantly lower insertion of clinical pharmacist activities among Brazilian centres.

What is new and conclusion: Our findings point to an unmet need related to clinical pharmacy activity within thoracic transplant programmes, especially in a developing country, and highlight a call for action in order to reach higher accredited regulatory standards regarding pharmacist-driven workforce in transplant care worldwide.