Pharmaceutical education and the practice of pharmacy

Community pharmacy has undergone a process of relative deprofessionalization; most community pharmacists are now and will continue to function primarily as drug distributors. More sophisticated professional services can and will be offered mainly in hospitals and clinics. There is need for a rigorous and objective assessment of future needs and career opportunities in pharmacy. Many of the expanded roles for pharmacists have not yet been justified by proper functional and economic evaluation. The acceptance of those who fill these new and nontraditional roles cannot be ascertained adequately as long as they are supported extensively by schools of pharmacy rather than by professional fees or by salaries from the institutions in which they practice. There has been an unwillingness or inability on the part of academic pharmacy to make objective and rigorous assessments of the career potential of the various new roles envisaged for pharmacists. Other important issues that have not been explored objectively include drug information leaflets for patients and the single professional degree (Pharm.D.). A good case can be made for having physicians rather than community pharmacists provide drug information literature to patients. There must be pharmacists with one of three different levels of training: the B.S., the Pharm.D., and the Ph.D. Of these, the most critically needed at the present time are Ph.D. pharmacists qualified for positions in drug discovery, formulation, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, and in the development and evaluation of new drug delivery systems.