title: The pharmacist's obligations to patients: dependent or independent of the physician's obligations?
abstract: It has been 40 years since the seminal papers on pharmacy's status as a profession sparked debate about the pharmacist's role in health care, yet the questions they raised are just as poignant today as they were then. Questions about whether pharmacists are the experts when it comes to drug therapy information can be answered practically by assessing the perception of pharmacists' obligations to patients as being dependent on or independent of physicians' responsibilities. Both options have important implications for pharmacy's status as a profession, the value that pharmacists can add to health care, and a pharmacist's right to deny a patient emergency contraception.
authors.affiliation: University of New York's Graduate Center, USA.
authors.forename: Jason V
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Altilio
mesh_terms: D004994:Ethics, Pharmacy; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations / Q000941:ethics*; D028681:Moral Obligations; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations / Q000941:ethics; D017009:Professional Autonomy; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations / Q000941:ethics*; D014481:United States