A Patient-Focused Future

"An increasing proportion of medicines require little to no intervention by pharmacists,” writes Pharmacy Times contributor Alan Polnariev, PharmD, MS, CGP, in his article “Why Pharmacists Should Embrace Technology That Could Put Them Out of a Job” (http://bit.ly/1A9ZK76). Polnariev argues that as technology is employed to handle many of the traditional pharmacy tasks, pharmacists must focus on using their clinical knowledge to perform uniquely human tasks, such as becoming “even more integrally involved in patient care and expanding their role in health care teams.” The bottom line? The future will be secure for pharmacists who successfully adapt to a changing environment and remain the go-to medication specialists for patients and other health care professionals.

To excel in a patientfocused future, pharmacists will need to be diligent about educating themselves about the particular health care needs of each patient population. Therefore, it is imperative that pharmacists have reliable information, such as this Women’s Health issue, to help educate themselves and their patients. Carefully selected to help you serve your female customers, the topics in this issue include premenstrual syndrome, postpartum depression, urinary tract infections, nutritional supplements, cardiovascular disease, and the use of antidepressants during pregnancy.

With so much information available, women seek out and appreciate the accessible, individualized guidance and counseling that pharmacists offer. In addition to providing understandable, timely health care information to patients, pharmacists can address lifestyle factors and manageable risks with their patients. A face-to-face interaction can go a long way toward reinforcing the importance of personal responsibility among patients who need encouragement.

Because we at Pharmacy Times seek to provide informational products of the highest quality for pharmacists, it is always a pleasure to learn that we are on track in doing so. We are pleased to announce that for the second year in a row, Pharmacy Times is the most-read publication among pharmacists, with a #1 rank in “Average Readership and Average Page Exposures” among pharmacists surveyed, according to the 2015 Kantar Media Pharmacy Readership Data. We couldn’t achieve this high honor without you, so we thank you and pledge to continually strive to provide you with the most useful and up-to-date information to help you in your everyday practice.

Thank you for reading, and enjoy the summer!

Mike Hennessy

Chairman and CEO