Wanted-Pharmaceutical Experiences

WANTED-pharmaceutical experiences More and more pharmacists are becoming keenly aware of the importance of serving as medication advisors when they dispense prescription medication and in giving guidance to the self-medicating public. The overwhelming acceptance of the series on "home remedies" published over the past 18 months in this Journal (including this issue) and their subsequent republication in the APhA Handbook of Non-Prescription Drugs, is proof that pharmacists are eager for more information on ways to better serve their clientele. The Handbook will be published early this fall in a new, expanded edition, -incorporating the "home remedies" articles published in the lournal and updating all tables of products. The "Animated Lessons in Pharmaceutical Service" featured in this issue pOints out the interrelationship of non-prescription drugs with prescription medication and moderator Robert Day responds to the charge that such pharmacist-patron relationships are "counter-prescribing." We agree with Dr. Day that such day-to-day encounters are an essential part of prOViding "complete pharmaceutical service" and that to consider guidance in the use of medication "counter-prescribing" is to let "the patient Hounder around making his own o-t-c selections." The ever-increasing problem of drug interactions or therapeutic incompatibilities demands that the pharmacist assume his proper role in conferring with the prescriber and counseling the public in the proper use of drugs when prescription medication is being administered at the same time the patient is using an o-t-c product. But we need more data on the types of pharmacist-patron encounters and the problems arising out of the complexities of proper drug usage. As early as October 1964, we published a diary of day-to-day encounters of a New Jersey pharmacist and our November 1965 editorial invited readers to submit data on specific patron encounters. In November 1966, Dan Rennick, then editor of American Druggist, proposed the accumulation of such data in the form of diaries-an idea further supported by the National Council of State Pharmaceutical Association Executives. To provide both the incentive and the convenience for accumulating such diaries, APhA conducted a "Professional Experiences Diary Competition" during February 1967. Louisiana State Pharmaceutical Association and Consolidated Brooklyn (N.Y.) Retail Pharmacists, among others, devoted considerable space in their publications encouraging pharmacists to keep such diaries .. The most comprehensive diary program was conducted during March 1967 by the Essex County (N.J.) Pharmaceutical Society. Over 100 diaries-33 percent of all pharmacists in Essex County-were compiled. A tabulation provided nearly 900 examples where pharmacists possibly prevented serious harm resulting from the misuse of drugs. If the results of the New Jersey study were projected on a national level, we could expect onehalf million significant examples of pharmacists providing patrons with much needed advice on the use of drugs occurring each month. As the Essex County officers notedUntil recently, when the pharmacist claimed an important contribution to public health and welfare, he could only offer lip-service as proof. Today he can emphatically state he is an indispensable factor in protecting the health and welfare of his community and has documented case histories to substantiate this fact. As new therapeutic incompatibilities are discovered and documented-and as new drugs constantly appear on the market-we need a continuing source of information. We need a constant How of data on procedures and advice pharmacists give to patrons on the nearly infinite number of ,combinations of using prescription as well as non-prescription drugs. Hopefully, we can implement a national pilot study of the Essex County program and hopefully other equally fruitful means of communicating such essential data can be established for the benefit of all pharmacists. Perhaps a monthly column in this Journal can be established offering specific examples of pharmacist-patron encounters. A Significant increase of letters to the editor could be another means of communicating the experience of one pharmacist to his colleagues. Here is a unique opportunity to establish a central clearinghouse of experience and pharmacists everywhere would have a chance to benefit from such information.

--George B. Griffenhagen Vol. NS8, No.9, September 1968

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