Bridging the continuity: Practice-enhancing publications about the ambulatory care medication-use process in 2024.

PURPOSE: This article identifies, summarizes, and prioritizes published literature on the ambulatory care medication-use process (ACMUP) from 2024 that can describe ambulatory pharmacy practice. The MUP is the foundational system that provides the framework for safe medication utilization within the healthcare environment. The ACMUP is defined in this article as having the following components: transitions of care, prescribing, access, dispensing, adherence, and evaluating. Articles evaluating at least one step of the ACMUP were assessed for their usefulness toward practice improvement.

SUMMARY: A PubMed search was conducted in January 2025 for the publication year 2024 using targeted Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) keywords and the table of contents of selected pharmacy journals, providing a total of 3,427 articles. A thorough review identified 34 potentially practice-enhancing articles: 4 for transitions of care, 10 for prescribing, 5 for access, 2 for dispensing, 4 for adherence, and 9 articles for evaluating. Trends identified in the impactful articles are discussed and compared to trends identified in previous articles in this series highlighting articles published from 2020 through 2023.

CONCLUSION

It is important to routinely review the published literature and to incorporate significant findings into daily practice. This article continues a series of articles defining and evaluating the currently published literature around the ACMUP. As healthcare continues to advance and care shifts to ambulatory settings, the ACMUP will continue to be a crucial process to evaluate.