Beyond the Counter: The Community Pharmacist of the Future

Fifteen years ago, a community pharmacist's role in the United States was dispensing medication. Five years ago, it expanded to include administering routine vaccines. Fifteen years from now, the authors posit that it will include minor acute illness evaluation and treatment, chronic disease prevention, and complex disease management, including medication prescribing and administration. This evolution, which just began recently in the United States but is well under way in many other countries, would help to relieve pressure on primary care, control costs, improve outcomes, and increase access to essential services, particularly in rural communities. It will require policy reforms and investments in key enablers, including workforce development, integration and interoperability with the rest of the health ecosystem, and systems and structures to ensure safe, high-quality care. Ultimately, this expansion of the role of the community pharmacist will align care more closely with locations that are convenient to patients and leverage relationships already imbued with trust. The authors describe the structural changes needed to accomplish this transformation.