Contemporary Research Methods in Pharmacy and Health Services

Shane P. Desselle, RPh, PhD, FAPhA, is Associate Dean for Research & Professional Affairs, Chair, and Professor at Touro University California, USA. He is founding Editor-in-Chief of Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy (RSAP) and Exploratory Research in Clinical and Social Pharmacy (ERCSP). Additionally, he coedits the major text Pharmacy Management: Essentials for All Settings, now in its 6th, worldwide edition. He has published over 170 papers in peer-reviewed journals. In 2020, he coauthored a paper winning the Wiederholt Prize for the best paper published in Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, and in 2019, he won the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Sustained Contribution Award for his teaching, scholarship, and service in social/administrative pharmacy. His federally funded research focuses on organizational culture, quality of work life, and advancing the roles of various professionals within the medication use and education systems.Victoria Cardenas, BPharm, MPharm, PhD, FFIP, is an Associate Professor at the University of Granada, Spain, where she serves as Vice-Dean for International Relations and Postgraduate Studies at the Faculty of Pharmacy. Her teaching and research focus on the development, evaluation, and implementation of professional pharmacy services, aiming to optimize the quality use of medicines and improve patient outcomes. Her work also addresses the advancement of patient-centered care and the integration of clinical pharmacy services within healthcare systems. She has authored over 90 peer-reviewed publications and has participated in several nationally and internationally funded research projects.Parisa Aslani, BPharm(Hons), MSc, GradCertEdStud (Higher Ed), PhD, MRPharmS, FPS, FFIP, FANZCAP, is a Professor in Medicines Use Optimisation at The University of Sydney, Australia. She is known internationally for her research in the areas of consumer medicines information and adherence to therapy. Her research has impacted policy and education in the healthcare sector, and at the Australian Government level, and has led to a global initiative on developing medicine information strategies for implementation at national and local levels. Her research skills range from qualitative techniques to survey design and randomized control trials.Aleda M.H. Chen, PharmD, MS, PhD, FAPhA, is a Professor and Director of Assessment at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Pharmacy, Cedarville, OH, USA. She is an Associate Editor at Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy (RSAP) and coedits the major text Pharmacy Management: Essentials for All Settings. In 2024, she won the Lyman Award from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) for the best educational research paper in the American Journal of Pharmacy Education (AJPE), and in 2026, she received the AACP Distinguished Teaching Scholar Award. Her teaching and research interests focus on pharmacy assessment, competency-based education (CBE), implementation science, and behavior change, leading to >125 published papers in peer-reviewed journals. Her work in CBE has led to her becoming a member of the International CBE Health Professions Collaborative and guest editing a collection of papers on the implementation of CBE for Perspectives in Medical Education.Timothy F. Chen, BPharm, DipHPharm, PhD, FFIP, FPS, FANZCAP, ARPharmS is the Professor of Medication Management at The University of Sydney, Australia. Tim is nationally and internationally renowned for his research in medication review and strategies to reduce medication-related harm. He has published extensively in this and other areas of practice. Tim’s research has informed significant practice change, through the implementation of the Australian Commonwealth Government funded Home Medicines Review (HMR) program. Tim currently leads a large and productive postgraduate research team and is the recipient of university and national teaching awards.Fernanda Stumpf Tonin, PhD, is a Distinguished Professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Granada, Spain, and an Integrated Researcher at the Health & Technology Research Center (H&TRC), Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa, Portugal. She is also a Senior Researcher at the National Research Group in Health Technology Assessment (NATS/UFPR) in Brazil. She serves as Vice-Chair of the Pharmacy Practice Research Special Interest Group of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) and as Associate Editor of Exploratory Research in Clinical and Social Pharmacy (ERCSP). Her research focuses on health technology assessment, pharmacoeconomics, and health outcomes research, with more than 150 publications in international peer-reviewed journals. She has been ranked among the world’s top 2% most-cited scientists by Stanford University. She also works as an HEOR and Market Access consultant in healthcare.

"...describes and reviews a variety of research approaches, study designs, and analytic methods for each different study in the field of pharmacy.... Each chapter has its own introduction, explaining how to approach and read the results of the study. [A]lso describes emerging methods of social pharmacy research and health services such as Q methodology and dyads in medicines optimization and illness management.... [T]arget audience includes doctoral students and new doctorate researchers, [and] also serves as a reference for research programs personnel.... [I]mpressively comprehensive from its basic design of research methods, to explanation of statistical testing, to details on data collection and processing of studies in varied practice settings.... [A] very comprehensive resource." --©Doody’s Review Service, 2022, Patrick J. McDonnell, PharmD (Temple University School of Pharmacy)

• 1. Applying human factors and ergonomics methods to pharmaceutical health services research2. Designing complex health interventions using experience-based co-design3. Use of common models to inform and design pharmacy and health services research4. Implementation science to guide pharmacy and health services research5. CFIR framework in pharmacy and health services research6. Principles and Applications of Meta-Research7. Best practices when conducting and a meta-analysis8. Using Methods from Human-Centered Design in Health Research: An Introduction for Pharmacy and Health Services Researchers 9. Applying action research in social pharmacy and health services research – An overview10. Q Methodology in pharmacy and health services research11. Medicines optimisation and illness management research using dyads12. Using network analysis in pharmacy and health services research13. Designing, evaluating and applying pictograms in pharmacy practice research14. Application of photo-voice in pharmacy and health services research15. The draw and write technique to uncover nuance in pharmacy and health services delivery16. The use of art to analyse learning practices in pharmacy and to inform assessment and intervention practices17. Evaluating benefits and harms of deprescribing using routinely collected data18. Understanding and addressing the observer effect in observation studies19. An introduction to how realist research can inform pharmacy practice and policy. 20. Application of process philosophy with organization and management science in pharmacy and health services research21. Design and application of the simulated patient method in pharmacy and health services research22. Moderation analysis with binary outcomes: Interactions on additive and multiplicative scales23. The use of ethnography in social pharmacy and health services research24. Video-reflexive ethnography applications in pharmacy and health services research25. Reflexivity practice during ethnographic informed fieldwork 26. Utilizing a Cognitive Engineering Approach to Conduct a Hierarchical Task Analysis to Understand Complex Patient Decision Making27. Rapid turn-around qualitative analysis applications in pharmacy and health services research28. Best practices in mixed methods for pharmacy and health services research29. Using textual data in qualitative pharmacy and health services research30. Online Focus Group Methodology: Recruitment, Facilitation, and Reimbursement31. Consensus development methods: use in the production of national and international frameworks and tools in health systems and policy making32. An overview of the Delphi Technique in social pharmacy and health services research33. Applying the Delphi Technique in pharmacy and health services research34. Using prescription drug databases for comorbidity adjustment: A remedy for disaster or a prescription for improved model fit?35. Handling missing data in surveys - Concepts, approaches, and applications in pharmacy and health services research36. Use of national databases and surveys to evaluate prescribing patterns and medication use37. Factor analysis principal components analysis in pharmacy and health services research38. Guidelines and standards in medication adherence research39. Methodological and disciplinary competence and insecurity in qualitative research40. Contemporary conceptualizations of measurement validity41. A practical approach to the assessment and quantification of content validity42. Structural equation modeling and latent class analysis in pharmacy and health services research43. Statistical consideration in making potential multiple comparisons