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A pharmacist is a healthcare professional who is a expert on pharmaceutical drugs and how they act to fight disease and improve the heath of the patient (http://www.las.uiuc.edu/students/programs/ppp/f_pharmacy.shtlm). Pharmacists are responsible for the implementation of drug therapy with the intention of improving the quality of a patient’s life. Some examples of such improvements include curing diseases, reducing or eliminating a patient’s symptoms, slowing the process of a disease, and preventing disease. A pharmacist works with patients and other healthcare professionals in order to design, implement, and monitor a drug therapy plan specifically designed for that patient (Kubitz 2). Not only do pharmacists advise doctors and patients on prescription drugs, but they also provide information on the best medications that can be purchased “over the counter” (California Occupational Guide No. 159, 1). The most common goal of pharmacists is to move beyond their traditional role of simply dispensing medication and deal with patients more directly and on a more personal level. They strive to be a source of advice on medications for both heath-care professionals and patients. They also are dedicated to providing individualized services to patients. Such services include consultations and providing more understandable information about the side effects of the medications that the patient is receiving (Kubitz 2). More than 1,000 years ago, religious and magic practitioners controlled the medical aspects of people’s lives. They believed that many aspects of disease were beyond observation, explanation, and control. The oldest known application of pharmacy was in ancient India and China. They based healing on the belief that disease was caused by spirits in the body. In Babylonia, Assyria, Egypt, and parts of Greece the concept of purification from sin by a purgative existed. In second century Rome, Galen classified medicines by the affects that they had on the four humors of the body: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. The systematic guide he created was, unfortunately, incorrect. Seventh century Arabs contributed a large amount of knowledge on the drugs available from that time through the Middle Ages. In 1240, the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, made great advancements in pharmacy by: issuing three regulations that separate the profession of pharmacy, instituting governmental supervision over pharmacy, and producing an oath that pharmacists had to take promising to prepare drugs reliably. The 19th century brought major pharmacy development throughout the United States. Pharmacy organizations, formal education of pharmacists, official pharmacy books (pharmacopoeias), and setting standards for the identity and purity of drugs are some examples of such developments. Some pharmacy unions that were developed during this time included the American Pharmaceutical Association (1852), the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (1958), and the Federation Internationale Pharmaceutique (1910) which is a worldwide organization base in the Netherlands.
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