To the casual observer a pharmacist may appear to be the health care professional who fills prescriptions. Most pharmacists are able to contribute much more to meet the drug-related needs. It has been established that only half of all people taking medications do so correctly. This alarming statistic emphasizes the need for pharmacists to be a key member of the health care team. Elderly people, the major consumer of medications, are the very group of people at greatest risk of serious adverse reaction from taking medications incorrectly.

Studies estimate the annual cost associated with these incorrectly used medications to be approximately 100 billion dollars. In other words, for every dollar we spend on prescription medications, we spend an additional dollar correcting the problems associated with the first. Minnesota has a greater proportion of elderly people than the national average and many live in rural areas. These two statistics would suggest that we spend more money correcting drug-related problems in rural Minnesota than the national average.

Thanks in part to the College of Pharmacy and efforts from programs such as the Minnesota Rural Health School, the role of pharmacists is changing to emphasize patient care. The pharmacist is now becoming an integral member of the health care team by educating consumers, identifying, resolving, and preventing drug therapy problems and coordinating care with other care providers. This new role, called pharmaceutical care, pioneered in Minnesota, has now become a national standard. The need for pharmacists to be part of the rural health care team is obvious. The challenge today's pharmacist faces is to integrate their expertise with those of other providers. In order to improve medication therapy, pharmacists need to interface the health care system and impart their knowledge at the time medication selections are selected.