Research Profiles - A Prescription for the Future

image: A Prescription for the Future

For Canada's 32,000 pharmacists, a health-care challenge has become an opportunity.

Heightened demands for care, a shortage of family doctors, the aging population and an ever-growing number of people taking multiple medications to treat chronic health conditions are several key challenges facing the health-care system. But pharmacists have an opportunity "to fashion the future of their profession and improve patient care," according to a recent article in the Canadian Pharmacists Journal.1

That future is well under way. It started in 2007 when Alberta gave its pharmacists the right to prescribe drugs. In the past four years, other jurisdictions have followed Alberta's lead to varying degrees, with some provinces granting pharmacists the power to prescribe while others extended their authority to renewing or extending prescriptions, changing dosages and formulations or making therapeutic substitutions.

The impact of all these changes on Canadians' health is still largely unknown. And that is where CIHR-funded research can make a difference.

"Because this is new, we need to evaluate it to see if it's beneficial," says the University of Alberta's Dr. Ross Tsuyuki, who is leading Canada's first randomized controlled trial to study the impact of having pharmacists initiate prescriptions.

That story is just one of several in this month's look at the changing role of the pharmacist in primary health care in Canada:

  • Q&A: An Evolving Role – Dr. Ingrid Sketris, who has taught pharmacy and conducted research at Dalhousie University for 31 years, shares her thoughts on the role of the pharmacist in the 21st century.
  • Not Your Father's Drug Store – McMaster University's Dr. Lisa Dolovich predicts a near future in which a trip to the corner pharmacy will be a lot like spending time in a doctor's office.
  • The Rx Revolution: Is it Making a Difference? – The University of British Columbia's Dr. Michael Law is examining whether the new powers that provinces are handing over to pharmacists are improving health and keeping costs under control.
  • 32,000 Points of Contact – Dr. Carlo Marra of the University of British Columbia is investigating the feasibility of using pharmacists in an "active surveillance" role for monitoring the post-market safety and effectiveness of new drugs.
  • The Rural Advantage – Dr. Ross Tsuyuki of the University of Alberta is studying the impact of pharmacist prescribing and care on patients with high blood pressure in rural communities.
  1. Meagen Rosenthal, Kelly A. Grindrod, Larry Lynd, Carlo A. Marra, David Bougher, Chuck Wilgosh, Ross T. Tsuyuki, Pharmacists' perspectives on providing chronic disease management services in the community – Part II: Development and implementation of Services. Canadian Pharmacists Journal, Vol. 142, No. 6, 2009, 284-288