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Perspective and Preparedness
Douglas Hepler and Linda Strand of the University of
Minnesota, USA described the concept of Pharmaceutical
care (PC) in 1990. They defined the term PC as the
responsible provision of drug therapy for the purpose of
achieving definite outcomes that improve the patients
quality of life. Further, PC implied that the
practitioner (Pharmacist) takes responsibility for
patient's drug related needs and holds him/herself
accountable for meeting these needs. In other words
pharmacist assumes the responsibility for providing a
service of real value and for which he would be paid
for. This role is much bigger and responsible than
simply dispensing a drug.
The definition of pharmaceutical care essentially
addressed two issues, namely the patient (as the focus)
and the responsibility of the pharmacist for providing
real service (practice and the value of it).
In order to meet this responsibility, the profession of
pharmacy in the USA debated on the issue of “dispensing”
to “dispensing and patient care”. The patient care
required the pharmacist to know and also have expertise
on drug related morbidity and mortality, selection of
drug therapy, its optimization and cost effectiveness.
It took almost 10 years for the American Association of
the Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) to effectively advocate
and mandate the concept and to bring in the changes in
the profession's mission and direction. These included
changes in regulations, reimbursement, pharmaceutical
education, practice, patient education and expectations,
relationships with physicians, responsibility of
professional associations, physical structures of
pharmacies and attitudes of the pharmacist.
The AACP has not only re-defined its goals and mission
to advance the quality of pharmacy education and the
leadership role of the pharmacist but also mandated
Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm D.) degree (a six year
program) as the first professional degree. This new
professional degree has now completely replaced the
traditional B.S. degree in Pharmacy in the United States
of America.
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