Lacking Up Life-Saving Drugs.Thanks to Kerry Howley Kerry Howley is senior editor of Reason Magazine. She first came to Reason as an intern after graduating from Georgetown University with a B.A. in Philosophy and English in 2003. for saying what I have wanted to say for years ("Locking Up Life-Saving Drugs," August/September). Being a libertarian and a pharmacist, I have had time to contemplate the issue of why most drugs require physician intervention to begin with. The only valid reasons are patents and protectionism protectionism Policy of protecting domestic industries against foreign competition by means of tariffs, subsidies, import quotas, or other handicaps placed on imports. for physicians and drug companies. That, and drug companies and doctors consider laypeople lay·peo·ple or lay people pl.n. Laymen and laywomen. too ignorant to manage their own care. With the advent of the Internet, drug information is readily available to anyone willing to take the time to find it. I would suggest leaving the definitive diagnosis to doctors, but treatment options must be left to the patient. To say that we as pharmacists and physicians somehow have a mystical monopoly on drug information is fallacious. Go to any Barnes and Noble, and you'll see plenty of pocket-sized books on drugs. Let's also add professional licensure to the mix of why medical care is so expensive. Look at the disciplinary actions of any licensing board for any given month, and you will conclude that the piece of paper is worthless. But people are so conditioned to think that a piece of paper issued by the state is some guarantee of ethics and professional ability that the likelihood of licensure going away is remote. The beauty of moving most commonly used drugs to over-the-counter status is that the need for the pharmacist still remains. We can strategically place ourselves as medication management experts and help people stay on top of interactions, side effects Side effects Effects of a proposed project on other parts of the firm. , and monitoring drug therapy for efficacy. I have worked in hospital pharmacy A hospital pharmacy is concerned with pharmacy service to all types of hospital and differs considerably from a community pharmacy. Some pharmacists in hospital pharmacies may have more complex clinical medication management issues whereas pharmacists in community for more than 20 years, and since everything done in a hospital must be by physician order anyway, my job is secure. Pharmacists adjusted when drug companies started making finished dosage forms (tablets and capsules) and effectively took most compounding away. We simply have to find ways to make our services marketable to consumers, who deserve to orchestrate or·ches·trate tr.v. or·ches·trat·ed, or·ches·trat·ing, or·ches·trates 1. To compose or arrange (music) for performance by an orchestra. 2. their own care. Joe Haynes, R.Ph., MBA MBA abbr. Master of Business Administration Noun 1. MBA - a master's degree in business Master in Business, Master in Business Administration Seminole, FL |
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