The research proposal should be: ABSTRACT – A brief summary ( around 50 words) of the research
to be undertaken. It should preferably be written in non-technical language such that a non-
specialist in the discipline will know what the proposal involves. SYNOPSIS OF LITERATURE – An
introduction/synthesis of the key ideas & references that lead to the statement of the
research question & objectives. (There is no specified maximum number of words, bear in mind
this is not a literature review, and this section should be the minimum necessary to place the
proposal in context) RESEARCH QUESTION/OBJECTIVES – State briefly & clearly the research
question being asked & the objectives of the research. METHODOLOGY – A description of how the
research will be undertaken. Sufficient detail of methods, and of sample size, source etc
should be given so that it is clear how the methodology addresses the research aims.DATA
COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS . The supervisor said about second( research proposal) uploaded form
“I think that this has more potential but I’d be careful about limiting yourself to warfarin.
The coming years, during which you’ll be completing your PhD, will see more use of the novel
oral anticoagulants so I think that these need to be a focus to ‘future-proof’ your research.
There will need to be education of patients about these new agents too, especially in relation
to adherence as they typically have shorter half-lives than warfarin so missed doses will
potentially have a much more significant impact on efficacy”. I’m also not sure about the
truth of your statements “most pharmacists are not able to effectively advice their patients
on issues associated with warfarin treatment”, and “Improved pharmacist education on warfarin
management is the only effective way to optimize the use of it to improve patients’ adherence
to their treatment regimen”. Is the problem that pharmacists don’t know enough about warfarin,
or is it that they simply don’t have adequate opportunities to educate patients on warfarin?
We’ve already done some work in the area of pharmacist home visits incorporating warfarin
education in any case – please see attached. What I’d suggested, as mentioned below, is
initially the development of a prospective database to evaluate patients’ diet, antithrombotic
knowledge, anticoagulation satisfaction and adherence. This database can then be used to
identify patient outcomes and subsequently what the actual nature of any problems are – is it
a lack of information provided by healthcare professionals, or is it that healthcare
professionals don’t have sufficient opportunities to follow patients up to repeat the
important messages, or is it other factors interfering with adherence? You can then plan lack
an intervention to address these actual real world problems.
-Use about 5 -10 references ( articles) and do not focus only on warfarin.
