In this time when there is great concern about the rising cost of medications, a Creighton professor says if consumers work more closely with their pharmacists they might be able to lower their medication costs.
Dr. Amy Haddad is the Dr. C.C. and Mabel L. Criss Endowed Chair in the Health Sciences, located in Creighton’s Center for Health Policy and Ethics. She is the co-author of Case Studies in Pharmacy Ethics, recently released in its third edition.
Haddad says we should be aware of the impact pharmaceutical manufacturers’ ads on television and in print can have on us as consumers. She says the newest medication may not be the best one for everybody, and that pharmacists can help with these decisions.
“Pharmacists are in the unique position of being, first of all, drug experts; and second, they understand drugs that are equally efficacious, so that they match up to be as effective as, perhaps, a new product or other products that have been on the market that may be more expensive. And they can advise prescribers and counsel patients on maybe a choice that will as effective but less expensive.”
Haddad says the pharmacist may have to talk with the prescriber if the substitution is not one they can make on their own.
She says if we see pharmacists as drug experts, we can ask them all sorts of questions – a prime example being about the side effects of different medications.
For more information, the website is Creighton.edu/chpe/