From the desk of the editor: Ngwerume & Themessl-Huber on Healthcare/CBPR

Over the course of a few weeks I am introducing new papers being published by the journal. By way of bringing alive the concept of designing action research for scale, I will also reflect on how to “grow” the projects reported or what the implications to a wider audience may be if the work were continued.


Karebor Tuhaise Ngwerume from Brocklehurst Chemist, Hull, UK and Markus Themessl-Huber of Central Queensland University, Australia share their action research work which developed among a community pharmacy team. The pharmacy team started by reflecting on their own practice and in doing so examined the reliability of the evidence base they used to give advice to customers regarding the sale of medicines. This process resulted in the development of portfolios of evidence-based counter recommendations and a more knowledgeable, self-aware, confident as well as research-aware pharmacy team.


From the point of view of growing to scale, Karebor’s and Markus’ work also helps build the rapidly increasing repository of CBPR studies. The call to be “evidence based” is not so simple to implement – turns out that only half of all medicines and procedures prescribed are in fact evidence based. The intervention that the pharmacy team successfully undertook was, in fact, a microcosm of the type of culture shift happening in healthcare delivery institutions. There will be more and intense interest on such CPBR studies, in aggregate. Calling all graduate students: clearly metastudies of many CPBR studies are needed. Please find their work: http://arj.sagepub.com/content/early/2010/06/28/1476750310366042.abstract

Warm regards,

Hilary Bradbury-Huang, Editor in Chief