Global research trends and hotspots in pharmaceutical care: a bibliometric analysis and visualisation using CiteSpace and VOSviewer.

Objective: Pharmaceutical care is closely related to the outcome and prognosis of disease treatment. This study analyses the research status, hotspots, frontiers and development trends of pharmaceutical care from the perspective of bibliometrics.
Methods: Related literature on pharmaceutical care published in the Web of Science Core Collection database was collected and knowledge maps were drawn by science information visualisation software Citespace 6.1 .R3 and VOSviewer 1.6.17.0.
Results: A total of 3289 institutions from 105 countries/regions published 2906 papers in 669 academic journals, which were cited 50 027 times. The top three countries/regions by the number of publications are the USA, UK and Brazil. The top three institutions are Utrecht University and the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, and University College London in the UK. The top three journals are American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education , International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy . The top three authors are Hersberger KE, Bouvy ML and Hughes CM. The most co-cited is Hepler CD, and the most co-cited influential is Strand LM. COVID-19 pandemic, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and pharmacy practice are the most cutting edge topics in the field of research in pharmaceutical care. Pharmaceutical service and clinical pharmacy are research hotspots in pharmaceutical care.
Conclusion: In the past 10 years, papers in the field of pharmaceutical care have shown a significant growth trend and scholars have become increasingly interested in research on related content in the field of pharmaceutical care. Our research results are of great significance for improving the connotation construction of pharmaceutical care and improving patient satisfaction and prognosis, and can also be used as an important reference for relevant scholars to select scientific research topics for subsequent research. The objective basis for relevant government departments is to modify and formulate health policies or measures.
Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared.
(© European Association of Hospital Pharmacists 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. Published by BMJ.)