Drug Topics - November 19, 2007 - (Page 36)

36 DRUG TOPICS NOVEMBER 19, 2007 www.drugtopics.com VIEWPOINT Dennis Miller, R.Ph. Reflections on pharmacy school after 30 years hat do you believe were your most relevant classes in pharmacy school? If you were asked today, how would you design the pharmacy school curriculum based on what’s been important in your career? Here are my thoughts on the subject, from the perspective of a chain pharmacist. My most prominent memory of pre-pharmacy and pharmacy school is the heavy emphasis on chemistry. Who can forget all those courses in inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, and biochemistry? To this day, I can’t understand why my formal education placed such a heavy emphasis on chemistry. There is very little that I need to know about chemistry to function as a competent retail pharmacist. The public associates pharmacists with chemistry, but that is an outdated view of pharmacists today, just as the mortar and pestle is an archaic symbol for pharmacy. The chemistry requirements in pharmacy school seem to be a holdover from the days when “pharmacist” was almost synonymous with “chemist.” My organic chemistry class consisted of pre-pharmacy and premedical students. I remember the professor of the class mentioning that he had been approached by some premed students about making the class more meaningful to aspiring health professionals. The professor commented that this was a reasonable request and that the issue would be examined. However, I didn’t detect any increase in relevance after that point. At that time, I considered it somewhat idealistic that these premed students approached the professor with a request to make the class more relevant for future health professionals. Now, I realize they were absolutely right. There was a general perception among pre-pharmacy and premed students that the chemistry and physics classes were “hurdle” classes used by admissions committees to weed out applicants. If a student did well in those classes, it was assumed that he or she could do well in pharmacy school or medical school. Like the heavy emphasis on chemistry that was required to become a pharmacist, I have never understood the physics requirement. Even back in the 1970s, it should have been perfectly clear that physics had very little to do with pharmacy. W a community pharmacist in Delray Beach, Fla., encourages feedback at dmiller1952@aol.com. THE AUTHOR, Illustration: Sandy Schultz In pharmacy school, I had no idea that memorizing things like the structural formula of drugs would turn out to be of no use in my career. Knowledge of structural formulas would have been beneficial if I had become a medicinal chemist. During my entire career as a chain pharmacist, there has never been a single instance in which I needed to know the structural formula of a drug. If you were to rank all of your required college courses in terms of relevance to your career, where would you place chemistry on that list? When is the last time that a drug’s structural formula had any bearing on any decision you had to make or on any prescription you filled? When is the last time a doctor or customer asked you a question that required you to look at the structural formula of a drug? I am not saying that we should not have a single course in chemistry. Complete ignorance of medicinal chemistry would not be wise. For example, pharmacists would not be able to have an informed opinion about the differences among “me-too” drugs without some understanding of the similarity in their structural formula. Pharmacists know that the difference in some drugs is simply a minor molecular modification that is sufficient to qualify for a separate patent. Retail pharmacists draw upon their knowledge of pharmacology infinitely more often than their knowledge of chemistry. Counseling requires knowledge of pharmacology and drug therapies, not chemistry. Yet my college years consisted of more classes in chemistry than pharmacology. What sense does it make to have so much chemistry in college if it’s not used after graduation? Of course, chemistry is important for understanding things like IV incompatibilities, but I had far more chemistry than is needed to understand IV incompatibilities. As a chain pharmacist, I’ve never prepared an IV. Pharmacy school curriculum needs to be more relevant. All courses—including chemistry—should be given a focus in school that is proportional to the needs of pharmacists in the real world. Having chemistry as the foundation of a pharmacist’s education is, to me, absurd. In my opinion, pharmacology and therapeutics should be the central focus of the college curriculum. Do you agree? http://www.drugtopics.com

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Drug Topics - November 19, 2007 Contents Latebreakers Letters Leukemia Patients Now Have More Options First-in-Class HIV Drug Boon to Patients at End of Tether 150 Years of American Pharmacy Pharmacy Schools Confront New Pressures From Pariah to Patient ACCP Releases Position Paper on Ethical Interactions New Injectable Antibiotic Welcomed with Open Arms NCCN Updates Head and Neck Cancer Guide Improved Phosphate Binder Approved for Dialysis Patients Considering Combination Concern Ensuring Seamless Care Bill Would Create Center for Comparative Effectiveness Hospital Improves Patient Safety with Automatic Drug Distribution System Infection Rates, Patient Stays Drop with New Drug Device How R.Ph.s Helped Three Hospitals Win Quality and Safety Awards A Pharmacist and Dog in Tow are Alzheimer’s Patients’ Best Friends More PBMs Agreeing to Pricing Transparency New Insulins in the Management of Diabetes New Products Advertisers Index Classified VIEWPOINT: Reflections on Pharmacy School After 30 Years

Drug Topics - November 19, 2007

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