Patient Care

student pharmacist helping patient with medications

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Overview

The new health care landscape, the high cost of drugs, the rise of polypharmacy, the prospects of genetically determining drug response—and therefore selection and dosing for an individual—and more make this the time for pharmacists to practice at the top of their profession as never before. The UCSF School of Pharmacy is dedicated to helping patients benefit from the right medicines, taken correctly, safely, and effectively.

Much of the School's patient care agenda is carried out in close collaboration with the UCSF Medical Center. The School's faculty pharmacists in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy and UCSF Medical Center pharmacists in the Department of Pharmaceutical Services work closely to improve the evidence-based use of therapeutics at UCSF. Through the dissemination of their research, they affect care beyond UCSF.

The School's faculty pharmacists are also developing new models of care outside the hospital to meet the medication needs of a changing health care environment.

Patient care in the School's Department of Clinical Pharmacy is under way in the following settings:

History of innovation in patient care

The UCSF School of Pharmacy has a long history of pioneering the pharmacy care of patients. In the 1960s, the School was the first to train pharmacists as drug therapy specialists and not simply drug dispensers. This philosophical and academic shift positioned pharmacists as clinical pharmacists who, as active members of the health care team, began to work side by side with physicians and nurses, providing direct care to patients and consulting with patients’ families. That was then; this is now. The possibilities are tremendous for pharmacists to meet patient care needs in new ways as part of collaborative health care teams.