The Role of the Pharmacist/Pharmacy in the Future of Health Care
A critical topic for pharmaceutical marketers and marketing researchers, often receiving far less attention than it should, is the changing role of the pharmacist, and of the pharmacy in which he/she practices, in the delivery of health care in the United States.
I recently came upon a reprint of a paper, “THE CRITICAL LINK: Patient-Pharmacist Interaction Is the Pathway to Improved Healthcare in the United States,” by Harold E. Cohen, RPh, editor-in-chief, U.S. Pharmacist. In this paper, Mr. Cohen argues that compliance is a major problem in the U.S. health care system and that the pharmacist is best positioned to improve this situation based on training, availability, patient trust, etc.
Needless to say, this brief paper got me thinking about the numerous issues this argument raises, many of which deserve serious consideration and study by those in health care marketing and marketing research.
As a key first step in such deliberation, we need to break the argument down into its component parts. First, there is little question that lack of patient compliance is a major problem in the health care delivery system... |
