The Future of Pharmacy

One of the things I have noticed while surfing through the various pharmacy and pre-pharmacy forums is a frustration with the of changing pre-reqs over the last couple years. The majority seem to think that it is unfair to change requirements and that changes lack an overall point.

Thus I decided to dedicate this blog post to explain precisely why this changing to those who may be unfamiliar with the state of the field. This was spured by a lengthy tangent one of my interviewers and I delved into last week about where the field is heading and the changes that are coming. We both agreed that the current pharmacy school curriculum has to change in the coming years, but no one is quite sure where to start.

Before we dive into that, consider this fact. The classes they teach in medical school have remained relatively unchanged for many years. Sure new topics have been added and new methods of teaching used, but, for example, there hasn't been a new system discovered in the body during this period.

Why is this?

Because medical schools have all the essential information they need to train a doctor today, tomorrow and twenty years from now. Yes there will be some slight variations over the years, but I can guarantee that there will not be a massive change in med school curriculum during that time frame.

Now let's look at pharmacy schools. I consider myself fairly well versed in the history and current events of the field, probably more so than others my age. What few people realize, especially those who are new to pharmacy, is that the field is extremely volatile. There may be no other medical field that is evolving as rapidly as pharmacy is.

Think about how much has changed in the past fifteen years. The number of drugs on the market has exploded. Programs such as MTMs were nothing but the imagination of an innovative few. The term preventive health care was in its infancy.

Yet look where we are today. Pharmacists have never had such a vital role in patient care. The kicker is that this role will continue to increase in the coming years. As pharmacy school's accreditation come due for renewal, many are scrambling to meet the new patient care requirements.

Perhaps the biggest change to come will be the new classes of drugs which are currently in development. It has become apparent that the field has tapped out the available simple chemical compounds that have been the foundation of pharmacy since its inception. It is very unlikely that a new collection of blockbuster drugs will be found under these methods. Granted there is always the possibility, but one will not see blockbuster drugs appear with the frequency that they did at the turn of the century.

Where the future lies, however, are in proteins. Already researchers are toying with the idea of creating unique proteins to act in the same manner as drugs in the body. The evolution of insulin over the past several years is what has opened the door for this new area. Some estimates state that we are less than ten years away from the first protein-based drug hitting the market.

Now lets go back to the schools and their curriculum again. They now have to start adding patient care classes, if they haven't already, and at some point in the future they will have to consider those aforementioned protein based drugs.

The problem is, you simply cannot add more time to the pharmacy school curriculum. Three years in a classroom is the most they will have to work with. In order to squeeze in new classes, to fulfill future requirements, more pre-reqs are going to be required.

In reality, this is not a terrible idea. The first year of many programs are just review of courses that most have already taken. Freeing up credits by making biochemistry and stats pre-reqs is simply a good idea.

Yet another area that will be changing, I would expect by the end of the next decade, is the requirement of some sort of residency program. The field is growing to the point where there is almost too many details for one person to retain in their heads. Pharmacy will most likely take a chapter out of the medical school curriculum and pushing for residency training.

And really, would this be such a bad thing? A pharmacist focused in say, pediatric oncology, working with a doctor with a similar focus could accomplish amazing things together. Sure, people will still go to retail, but how nice would it be to have a retail pharmacy who specialized in diabetes or something of that nature?

To often I work with pharmacists who mumble, or yell depending on their mood, "This is not what I went to pharmacy school for!"

Ya know what, they are right. Yet it all comes back to how quickly the field is evolving and how we must all be prepared to adapt to it in the coming years.

I cringe every time I hear of people jumping into pharmacy without truly knowing what it is all about. Last week one of the interviewees stated that he decided to go to pharmacy school just a month ago and hadn't looked much into it. That alone scared the bejesus out of me.

So those of you who are aspiring to become a pharmacy, heed this message. Your role as a pharmacist in twenty years may be something that no one has imagined yet. This is not even including the Armageddon which is coming with both PBMs (well all know the shit will hit the fan sometime in the next few years) and/or public health care.

Just don't be caught off guard by it.