Preventive medicine and public health are insufficiently focused by the pharmaceutical approach, I thibnk.

Pharmacist has got great role in public health on few issues. Firstly dispense of drugs based on prescriptions not on self prescription by patients or relatives , this will reduce the burden of drug resistance mainly on antibiotics use by the common people as well as the irrational use of drugs leading to complications in turn resulting in financial burden to the health care system either by family, community or country. Secondly participating in the national programs meant for creating awareness about making use of facilities for treatment or follow up conditions to the patients. They can help in these way in success rate of health conditions to the community. Thirdly, they can help them to procure medicines either as free or under subsidy for certain conditions form the nearest health facility.

Most important is talking to the patients or their relatives about the Health program from their respective Governments and displaying at least few posters in their pharmacy with regular update .

In theory or in practice?

Random subjective:

I suspect that a minority of the younger pharmacists in the USA at least still seem to expect to use any of their pharmD training at work. After their administrative job of health plan interfacing I have been both impressed and also personally helped by those pre-jaded to take time off from their filling work to interact with customers. I understand that beyond some point this could probably get them in trouble, but it's been great the few times I've noticed the rare pharmacist making the time (outside of behind the counter work) to proactively access patient understanding of medications before they are given. But that's at an individual level. At the public health level, I remember that when I was taking MPH classes one of my best classmates was a pharmD. I think part of why I liked him was that pharmaceutical companies never considered him, a non-decision maker, relevant enough to target. He seemed to keep a more open mind about what was best for patients. I helped him with English for a publication (eventually accepted) he wrote on the opioid crisis, in 1996. Never invited to phentanyl-sponsored golf in Hawaii, he never became a fan of such. Or of similar.

@ K N Prasad , Kudos on that thought. A cousin in law of mine is a pharmacist. He describes once causing a patient to "delay" filling their antibiotic in order to try OTCs for their common cold. I respect that in some cases that might require some boldness. (In contrast, some local physicians working for network health organizations describe getting penalized for any patient complaints about them, including patients with common colds complaining that they weren't prescribed antibiotics).

Apart from dispensing a medicine, creating awareness among the community ,Medicine Use Reviews (MURs) to improve patients' adherence and experience of using their medication(s), for the patients with cardiovascular disease or risk factors, who are prescribed four or more regular medicine and New Medicine Service (NMS) ... The service provides support for people with long-term conditions newly prescribed a medicine to help improve medicines adherence is also performed by the pharmacist.

Pharmacists also play a significant role now in the US in giving vaccines to adults. The pharmacy chains advertise the availability of vaccines, and the pharmacists do an excellent job in delivering them and reminding people about vaccines other than the one that may have brought them into the pharmacy initially. Pharmacies usually are much more accessible than physicians' offices - easy to find, no appointment needed, longer hours.

Pharmacists should not be taking care of patients, strictly speaking. They play an important role in public health in maintaining regulations upon prescription drugs, being alert to drug interactions and incorrect dosages when they should inform and advise the concerned physician. They also have a huge responsibility for stocks, storage and safety, as well as following protocols for preventing accidents involving drugs and chemicals. They ideally know more about drugs than physicians, and can be an enormous public health resource. India is considering short bridge courses for them to allow them to provide limited primary health services.

Smoking cesation, oral contraceptives, diabetes prevention, vaccines assessment and administration, erc, etc, etc. Pharmacists play a huge role in public health and are being significantly underutilized. I am a PharmD and MPH and constantly look at public bealth opportunities from my pharmacy lense.

Thank you, everyone. Being an integral part of public health, pharmacists provide primary care services through community pharmacies to address healthcare needs of the public. It needs to be improved further as an established point of care.

Pharmacists contribute towards the implementation of some Public Health essential services aimed at protecting and promoting public’s health through playing a role in comprehensive drug therapy management. Drug Therapy Management is a collaborative process of selecting drug therapies (management of the formulary system); informing, educating and empowering patients and health professionals about medicines use and health issues ; monitoring patients, and continually assessing outcomes of therapy through conducting assessments such as ABC and VEN analysis as well as Drug Use Evaluations. Pharmacists working within Medicines Regulatory Authorities enforce laws and regulations that protect health and ensure safety through regulating medicine use in the form of interventions such as medicine dossier assessments and Good Manufacturing Practices inspections of pharmaceutical manufacturers , licensing of pharmaceutical outlets as well as regulating the importation and exportation of medicines while also performing quality checks on medicines all of which ensure that medicines circulating within the healthcare system are of good quality and safe and not counterfeits or substandard. Regulation of clinical trials is another responsibility of pharmacists. Pharmacists in retail pharmacies also link people to needed personal health services through referral to other levels of care such as hospitals or clinics in those instances where the pharmacy cannot provide the service due to service unavailability or the fact that the symptoms the patient presents with require further laboratory investigations or management at a higher level of care. Pharmacists also evaluate effectiveness, accessibility, and quality of personal and population-based health services through conducting periodic surveys such as Medicines Access Survey.

Pharmacovigilance is an important part of public health. The research about drugs and treatments allow us to know the effectiveness of controlling high impact desases that are a large parte of the burden of morbidity and mortality in the world (acute myocardial infarction, arterial hypertension, diabetes, etc)

Primary prevention, maybe not, cause another professionals give education and make actions to prevent illness, of course with tools that in some ocations was investiged before by pharmacist