This lecture explores the theme that the soul (character) of individual pharmacists must be nourished in order to save pharmacy as a health profession. Health care is being drastically altered by a private sector that says it wants to lower health care costs but in fact desires huge profits. Pharmacy leaders have shown nimbleness in dealing with corporate demands, but many are becoming too preoccupied with the business of health care. Pharmacists need to discipline themselves lest the lure of the new order blind them to their primary obligations to patients. Pharmacists should act as a counterforce to the marketing of prescription drug products directly to consumers. Pharmacy is an occupation psychically bound to the act of providing medications to patients, but which knows it must find a new reason for being. There is hope for the profession in this realization--it led to the philosophy of pharmaceutical care--but no guarantees. Pharmacists must declare that their interests may differ from their employers' whenever patient welfare is in question. Suggestions are offered on how to nourish the soul of pharmacy.

 

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