Expanding pharmacist’s educational role using virtual and social media portals before and during COVID19 outbreak

BACKGROUND: There are many ways to raise public health awareness and recently, Social media networks (SMN) have played a big role in it. The study aims to assess SMN use for acquiring health care information and publics' perception of virtual encounters with pharmacists for health- related purposes; particularly in times of a pandemic crisis. METHODS: A bi-phasic cross-sectional survey was distributed on 2017 and again during COVID-19 pandemic. both phases (phase 1) and (phase 2) respectively, were compared and analyzed. RESULTS: On phase 1 and phase 2 we collected 566 and 409 respondents respectively. Most used SMNs in both phases were Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram. In both phases respondents preferred acquiring health care information by going physically to the hospital or pharmacy, however virtual interactions were only accepted by (14%) in phase 1 compared to (36%) in phase 2. Additionally, while only 15% said they would “definitely” reach a pharmacist virtually in phase 1, 50% said they would in phase 2. In phase 2, 90% follow the Saudi Ministry of Health website, while 41% follow verified doctors for acquiring medical health-care information. Virtual contact with a pharmacist was mostly (76%) for medical consultation. CONCLUSION: This study is the first to shed light on society's acceptance and perception of an innovative educational tool taken by the pharmacist through social media and virtual portals among the Saudi population in Jeddah. There's an opportunity for Medication Therapy Management (MTM), CMR, medication refill, and disease follow up that the pharmacist can take the lead in, if properly implemented. Future studies should look into safe and reliable ways to make use of SMNs as well as virtual tools to expand public health awareness especially in a highly technology dependent society.