[Jurisprudent pharmacy as a new pharmacy--feedback from litigation to pharmacy]

Risk management in the medical field is said to be entering into the third generation. By definition, the first generation covers the period until some 10 years ago when medical errors themselves used to be regarded as inconceivable and therefore as something of a taboo. The second generation is a period in which those concerned with medical treatment grappled squarely with this issue of medical errors and compiled manuals of "near miss" cases in an effort to prevent errors. After that, such an idea has come into existence that even the deepest carefulness threatens errors that could develop into the disputes among those involved. The thought of this kind has resulted in the deepening of understanding of the importance of risk management. As a result, the point of view on this issue has been getting broader to cover not only prevention of errors but also prevention of disputes. This type is called third-generation risk management. In this sense jurisprudent pharmacy or legal pharmacy, which is a kind of pharmacy that constitutes medical pharmacy, is aimed at feeding back the lessons learned from litigations to pharmacy to improve and develop it as a practical science and contributing to the realization of "patient-centered medical science."