title: Knowledge about the availability of the pharmacist in the Nuclear Medicine Department: A questionnaire-based study among health-care professionals.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this study was to analyze the knowledge about the availability of the pharmacist in the nuclear medicine department among health-care professionals through a prospective cohort study.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 741 health-care professionals participated in the study by answering 10 simple questions about the role of the pharmacist in the nuclear medicine department and the availability of pharmacist in the nuclear medicine department. An online questionnaire system was used to conduct the study, and participants were invited to participate through personal communications and by promoting the study through social websites including Facebook, LinkedIn and Google (including Gmail and Google+). The study was conducted between April 2013 and March 2014 using the http://www.freeonlinesurveys.com/Webserver. Finally, the data provided by 621 participants was analyzed. Group frequency analysis was performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16 (SPSS Inc. USA).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The participants were from Malaysia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, UAE and Nepal. In total, 312 (50.2%) female health-care professionals and 309 (49.8%) male health-care professionals participated in the study. Of the 621 participants, 390 were working in hospitals, and 231 were not working in hospitals. Of the participants who were working in hospitals, 57.6% were pharmacists. The proportion of study participants who were aware of nuclear pharmacists was 55.39%. Awareness about the role of the pharmacist in nuclear medicine was poor.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The role of the pharmacist in a nuclear medicine unit needs to be highlighted and promoted among health-care professionals and hence that the nuclear medicine team can provide better pharmaceutical care.
authors.affiliation: Unit of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, AIMST University, Bedong 08100, Kedah, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Subramani
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Parasuraman
authors.affiliation: Harris Main Road, Benson Town, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: K K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Mueen Ahmed
authors.affiliation: Unit of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, AIMST University, Bedong 08100, Kedah, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Tin Soe Saifullah
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Bin Hashim
authors.affiliation: Unit of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, AIMST University, Bedong 08100, Kedah, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Selvadurai
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Muralidharan
authors.affiliation: Unit of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, AIMST University, Bedong 08100, Kedah, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Kalaimani Jayaraja
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Unit of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, AIMST University, Bedong 08100, Kedah, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Wu Yet
authors.initials: WY
authors.lastname: Ping
authors.affiliation: Unit of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, AIMST University, Bedong 08100, Kedah, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Balakrishnan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Syamittra
authors.affiliation: Unit of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, AIMST University, Bedong 08100, Kedah, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Sokkalingam Arumugam
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Dhanaraj
keywords: Nuclear medicine; nuclear pharmacist; radiopharmaceuticals