Pharmacists: Helping Federal Regulators Making Educating Decisions on Health Care Issues

In an interview with Pharmacy Times at the recently-held National Community Oncology Dispensing Association meeting, Buddy Carter, Congressman (R-GA) discussed the importance of patient testimony and pharmacy education for members of Congress.

Transcript:

One of the things that we do in Congress, in our committee meetings, is that we have testimony from different witnesses, and we’re bringing different groups to let them share with us their story. This is one of the things that we depend on, and we try to get a diverse representation, if you will, of what’s going on out in the marketplace. So that we can make educated and wise decisions on how we can impact, or how we can pull back and stay out of it in some cases. That’s so very important, and we depend on different groups to come in and educate us on what’s going on in the marketplace. Of course we’re very busy in congress, and we’re practicing in one session, so we don’t have the opportunity of going back to our districts and working in our professions. We may not even have some people—I’m fortunate to be the only pharmacist currently serving in Congress—but there are others who really have no clue whatsoever what’s going on, not only in pharmacy, but in health care in general.