E-DRUG: Medicine, Clinical Pharmacolgy and Pharmacy
-----------------------------------------------
Dear colleagues:
As a Spanish clinical pharmacologist with a training program in the US, I am dissatisfied with the comments of Pablo Alcocer (E-DRUG: Recognition of pharmacists as health care providers (5) ).
A clinical pharmacologist is a doctor at first, secondly is a doctor, and third he is the only one who evaluates de performance of a drug in the human body.
You might have a misrepresentation of what is a clinical pharmacologist, but do not worry, the Spanish pharmacists will be lucky in the coming years. This medical specialization (clinical pharmacology) is in the way of disappearing in Spain because of European Higher Education Area (Bologna Plan) at the School of Medicine, and most important, because it cannot be an office position without being involved in patient care (the basic statement of his professional duties). The current "bureaucracy" is what you might suppose that is the work of a clinical pharmacologist. And please, this poor perception is not the proper figure.
Many pharmacists as you believe that medicine and pharmacy might be interchangeable when we talk about drugs, and therefore of clinical pharmacology. This is a very shocking misunderstanding. The training program for a clinical pharmacologist is not just 5 year period, but over 12 year (6 year Medicine, and 4-6 year specialization in Clinical Pharmacology). The only reality in Spain is that Community Pharmacists have cut the development of the clinical pharmacologists in the ambulatory setting.
Please do not mix up any comparison of medicine, and pharmacy. Two professions that overlap in favour of our society, complementary in patient care, but different ones.
Regards,
Prof. Jose-Luis Alloza (MD, PhD)
Clinical Pharmacologist
Dep. of Pharmacology - School of Medicine
The University of Alcala
E-28871 Alcala de Henares, Madrid, Spain
"Jose-Luis Alloza, M.D., Ph.D." <joseluis.alloza@gmail.com>