Payam Peymani
Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Iran
Title: Social pharmacy as a social aspect of Pharmco-epidemiology: Now more than ever
Biography
Biography: Payam Peymani
Abstract
Since pharmacy is increasingly assuming the role of ‘primary and secondary health care professionals’, rather than being solely dispensers of medicines and suppliers of medical appliances, pharmacy students and researchers require new proficiencies as communicators, problem-solvers and advisers. ‘Social, behavioral and cognitive science’ has been identified as having a significant contribution to make in the educational training of pharmacists. In this lecture we are concerned specifically with the application of sociology to the practice of pharmacy. Social pharmacy is a file riven by social demands. By studying the relationship between pharmaceutical sciences, society and humanistic perspectives, particularly through case studies, the impact of medication and changes in societal expectation of them, as well as through historical background studies and surveys of current movement, this field acts to determine the roles of pharmacists and pharmacies expected by society. Social pharmacy requires a basic knowledge of pharmaceutical science, but an understanding from socio-economic viewpoints of the current status and structures in which healthcare functions is important as well. So far, social pharmacy has played a vital and necessary role in training curriculum for community-based pharmacists. Social pharmacy may be seen as including of all social indicators influencing the use of a particular drug, like drug-related beliefs, regulations, policy, knowledge, attitudes, practice, medicine information, ethics and behavior. Social pharmacy programs in pharmacy curricula are becoming more crucial and essential because of the various factors that can affect the health of a society. Social pharmacy deals with the study of community and human act and as a behavioral science is often related with disciplines that deal with individuals as well as large and small groups, including psychology, sociology and anthropology. So it can be discussed that social pharmacy begins with a rationale of social, cognitive and behavioral sciences to educational course for pharmacists and its inclusion in the curriculum and also establish of departments, centers and journals of social pharmacy, which is a prerequisite for the development of the concept of social pharmacy and its further implementation in real world evidence and practice.