Primary Care Requirements for Pharmacists-Clinical Reasoning Education at Schools of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

For appropriate primary care practice corresponding to the various symptoms of a patient, team medicine on that combines the expertise of physicians and other medical staff has been recommended in recent years. It results in (1) higher quality of medical care, (2) lower burden on the physician, (3) better medical safety, and (4) reduced medical expenses. In order to promote team medicine through inter-professional collaboration, the responsibilities of the medical staff need to be reviewed to expand their respective roles. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare designated nine specific medical acts by pharmacists in 2010. Some acts require clinical reasoning (medical interview and physical assessment) in order to manage side effects in patients undergoing drug therapy. The new curriculum introduced in 2015 includes primary care education for pharmacists who see patients before they are seen by a physician. Because such patients are usually seen by the pharmacist on a walk-in basis, medical interview and inspection education is especially important in this situation. However, there is incongruity in the physical assessment education of prospective pharmacists among schools of pharmaceutical sciences in recent years, which tends to focus primarily on vital signs. Moreover, there is currently no consensus among physicians on the optimum range of procedures performed by a pharmacist before the patient is seen by a physician. In this presentation, the practice of primary care by pharmacists is discussed from the following perspectives: (1) target symptoms and patients, (2) clinical reasoning education at pharmaceutical schools, and (3) future issues.