Toward pharmacotherapy management by pharmacists: A point of view by a teacher in a private Pharmaceutical University

Abstract

Pharmacists are requested to be involved in the management of pharmacotherapy in clinical scenes more extensively than they did ever. It can be said that changes in medical environments such as the collapse of doctors' paternalism, the rising recognition of patients' autonomy in the decision making on their own medical therapy, and the increased accountability of medical care givers to patients have obliged pharmacists to participate in pharmacotherapy as patient's advocates. To meet these social needs the education of students in pharmaceutical universities or colleges should be reconstructed extensively from a traditional research-oriented system to a patient-centered system. In particular the education of applied pharmacotherapy is to be strengthened and enforced. A drastic reform of pharmacist education should be brought in effect. © 2007 The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan.