The Future of the Pharmacist on the Gynecologic Oncology Patient Care Team

Pharmacy Times interviewed S. Diane Yamada, MD, 53rd president of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO), Joseph Bolivar DeLee professor of obstetrics and gynecology, the chief of the section of gynecologic oncology at the University of Chicago, and inaugural gynecologic oncology fellowship director, on the future of the pharmacist on the gynecologic oncology patient care team.

S. Diane Yamada: I really see them being viewed as very important in terms of patient outcomes and quality of care. So, I think that we're going to be depending on having pharmacists as integral parts of our GYN oncology patient care team more and more.

As I stated before, I think the knowledge level of the pharmacist is just incredible—the knowledge of toxicities, drug interactions, mechanisms of vaccine action, the ability to substitute other medications that may be bio-identical or equivalent is just really key.

So, I see the future of the pharmacist as being incredibly important to the health care team and really a quality measure.