Pharmacists Are Essential Resources in Patient Care Across All Specialties

To close out American Pharmacists Month, experts across multiple specialties highlighted the critical and evolving role of pharmacists in patient care, including their accessibility and trust within communities; their specialized knowledge; ability to support medication adherence, affordability, and patient education; and their collaboration with other health care professionals. Collectively, the experts emphasized that pharmacists are integral, trusted, and indispensable members of the modern health care team, ensuring safe, effective, and patient-centered care.

This American Pharmacists Month recap video includes commentary from:

• Samantha Picking, PharmD, director of immunizations at Walgreens;
• Steven Pipe, MD, the Laurence A. Boxer Research Professor of Pediatrics and Professor of Pathology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor;
• Pranav Garimella, MBBS, MPH, chief medical officer of the American Kidney Fund and board-certified nephrologist at UC San Diego Health;
• Donald Middleton, MD, vice president of family medicine at UPMC Health Plan;
• Donna Ryan, MD, professor emerita from the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana;
• and Christian Ruff, MD, director of general cardiology at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Pharmacy Times: What is the value of the pharmacist in your area of expertise?

Samantha Picking, PharmD: It’s such a fun and important month to highlight the vital role pharmacists play. The role of local pharmacists is more important than ever. We’re on the front lines, helping ensure the health and safety of our communities, and we’ve played that role for decades. Americans visit their local pharmacist twice as often as any other health care provider. As one of the most accessible health care professionals, pharmacists often serve as the first point of contact for patients seeking guidance. We’re deeply embedded in our neighborhoods and able to address unique patient needs.

Ninety percent of people in the US live less than 5 miles from a community pharmacy, and 77% agree that pharmacists are an integral part of their care team. Younger generations, especially Gen Z and millennials, are excited about pharmacists expanding their scope of practice. Convenience and trust continue to drive this support. As we celebrate American Pharmacists Month, it’s important to remember that pharmacists are trusted, convenient, and accessible health care providers who play a crucial role in their communities.

Steven Pipe, MD: We have such a plethora of products now, and they require unique insights into their mechanisms of action. Nonfactor therapies are coming to the hemophilia B realm as well. Now we’re going to have a portfolio of products that include traditional factor replacements, nonfactor therapies, and gene therapies. There are different eligibilities and monitoring characteristics required for these therapies.

There are specific things you need to know. For example, if you’re on therapy A for prophylaxis, what does that mean if you experience trauma or need surgery? What kinds of things do you have to think about in terms of bleed management? There are also risk mitigation factors related to these therapies that you have to be aware of.

I think pharmacists can increasingly have greater roles within the multidisciplinary team. When I think back 20 or 30 years ago, when I started in hemophilia, we had just 1 platform of therapy for treating patients. All the clinicians and nurse coordinators were on the same page with the knowledge base of how to manage prophylaxis, surgeries, and breakthrough bleeding. But now, with this significant expansion of therapies and mechanisms of action, we need additional expertise in the multidisciplinary team to keep everyone educated and help distribute the load when managing different clinical scenarios. I’m glad we’ve already brought a pharmacist onto our team and look forward to expanding their role in the years to come.

Pranav Garimella, MBBS, MPH: Pharmacists play a critical role in the management of kidney disease. Many patients, especially those with advanced kidney disease and kidney failure, take anywhere from five to fifteen medications a day. Patients need to be educated about these medications—how to take them, when to take them, and even when to stop them.

In our practice, we have pharmacists working every day with dialysis patients, making sure that patients have enough refills, know when to ask for refills, and that their insurance providers are covering these medications. In our multidisciplinary CKD clinic, every time a patient comes in to meet with a clinician or nephrologist, they also see a pharmacist to ensure they have the medications they need, that we’re prescribing appropriately, and that patients can afford and adhere to their treatments.

As we’ve said, this is a team effort, and pharmacists are incredibly important in the management of complex medical conditions. In chronic kidney disease and other conditions such as heart failure and cancer, the pharmacist is just as vital as any other member of the care team, including the physician. I wouldn’t be able to successfully take care of my patients without our pharmacy team. I regularly consult with them, especially regarding new medications, to understand drug interactions and mechanisms of action, and to ensure adverse events are properly documented and reported to the authorities.

Donald Middleton, MD: Sadly, many Americans live with disease, and most of the time, disease control is a team effort. The major part of that team, in terms of medication, is the pharmacy community. Without the help of pharmacists, we would all be in dire need of better control for the illnesses that afflict so many people. There’s no way around this—the pharmacy community is an essential part of medical care for everyone.

At UPMC, we have 60 residents, and 12 of them are pharmacy residents. Every medical team in our hospitals and health centers has a pharmacy component. Physicians can no longer keep up with all the medication changes that come out constantly, and having someone with superior knowledge about medications by your side makes medical care extraordinarily better. The pharmacy community should not back down from this role. They shouldn’t hesitate to contact a doctor’s office to advise them—whether that’s pointing out a dosing issue or recommending a different treatment—because all of us need that kind of support.

Donna Ryan, MD: You know, I think the way I use my pharmacist is I ask a lot of questions of her. Believe it or not, I’m on a first-name basis with two of the pharmacists at my local drugstore. They are very knowledgeable about these medications in particular, and they can answer a lot of your questions. They can also make sure you’re taking these drugs safely. So they’re a go-to resource—do not overlook them.

Christian Ruff, MD: Yeah, it’s a tremendous value. We know that the medical armamentarium—the drugs that we prescribe—is such a complex process to navigate: figuring out the appropriate drug for the right patient, how to manage it with their other medications and comorbidities. Pharmacists are really our expert colleagues who assist in making sure we’re selecting the right medication for the right patient, at the right dose, and managing any potential complications that arise. In my practice, pharmacists are truly an indispensable and integral part of our team, and we rely on them heavily to ensure we’re delivering the most effective and safest care possible for our patients.