F S Mayer’s scientific contributions

During transition periods in professions, it is difficult to determine the extent to which activities, although heavily promoted by professional educators and leaders, have been adopted by practitioners. Pharmacy is no exception. Pharmacy educators and leaders have de-emphasized the productoriented, manipulative, and distributive skills in favor of 'public health' awareness by directing more attention toward patients, their environments, and their states of wellbeing. It is not clear, however, to what extent the redirection has changed the practice of pharmacists or what specific activities pharmacists are engaged in which reflect these new directions. It is also unclear how specific activities developed by individual pharmacists may be further developed, extended, and replicated by other pharmacists. This article explores the extent to which pharmacists are involved in the preventive health care of individual patients. It also discusses incentives and disincentives to this involvement and offers recommendations for increasing pharmacist activity in preventive health care.