Research and evaluation

Assessing authorship, study purpose and journals when evaluating clinical studies

Part of a comprehensive series showing how to evaluate a clinical study or research paper. This article focuses on why it is important to consider the authors’ background, aims and where the article was published.…

Inhaled corticosteroids not linked to increased risks during pregnancy, study suggests

Researchers found that there were no statistically significant differences in neonatal outcomes linked to the use of inhaled corticosteroids while pregnant, such as low birth weight and congenital malformation.…

Identifying and evaluating research study types

Part of a comprehensive series showing how to evaluate a clinical study or research paper. This article focuses on the importance of understanding the study type and research design.…

Four in five people carry out personal health monitoring, survey finds

The polling by YouGov also found that nearly half of respondents said blood pressure was the health aspect that they self-monitored.…

Regulator encourages development of microbiome-based medicines

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s position paper is aimed to provide clarity on microbiome medicinal products and how to bring them forward “with confidence”.…

Targeted blood pressure monitoring reduces stroke risk compared with fixed-dose treatment

In a meta-analysis covering almost 3,000 patients, researchers found that those receiving intensive blood pressure-lowering therapy showed a 38% reduction in recurrent stroke risk compared with those undertaking antihypertensive treatment.…

Early antiviral flu treatment linked with lower ICU admissions in children, study suggests

Children who were given early antiviral treatment were 31% less likely to be admitted to an ICU and had shorter hospital stays compared with the participants who were not given antivirals, researchers found.…

A faster route to rare disease treatments: the MHRA’s proposals 

Could a shake-up of the UK’s medicines approval process make a meaningful difference for people living with rare diseases? Here, we explore the government’s proposals and the role pharmacy could play in improving patient care.…

UK patients being recruited for ribupatide trials

Researchers will assess the efficacy of up to 10mg doses of weight-loss drug ribupatide in patients with or without diabetes over around an 18-month period.…

What increasing impact factors mean for the RCPharm research journals

The latest impact metrics from Clarivate and Scopus have been published, showing a positive trend for the Royal College of Pharmacy research journals.…