ABSTRACT
Pharmacy and drug information are synonymous. In the 1960s, when discrete drug information centers were being established within health care institutions, the expression “drug information pharmacist” appeared. While this expression may still have a place describing a drug information specialist, for the most part it is redundant-all pharmacists are drug information pharmacists. In 1991 Brodie et al. [1] identified a multiple-theory concept of pharmacy as a drug-use control system, a knowledge service, a clinical profession, and as the interface between humankind and drugs. The description of pharmacy practice was expanded from that of pharmacy as a “knowledge system” [2] to “a system (framework) of concepts dealing with the acquisition, translation, transmission, and utilization of drug knowledge” [1]. As a specific component of pharmacy practice, the drug information role is characterized by the ability of the pharmacist to perceive, assess, and evaluate drug information needs and retrieve, evaluate, communicate, and apply data from the published literature and other sources as a integral component of pharmaceutical care [3]. The ability to fulfill the drug information role is essential to successful pharmacy practice.
