Social pharmacy may be defined as the discipline dealing with the role of medicines from the social, scientific and humanistic perspectives. It draws on theories of the social and behavioural sciences, and includes health psychology. Social pharmacy can be considered to consist of all the social factors that influence medicine use, such as medicine-related beliefs, regulations, policy, attitudes, medicine information, ethics and behaviour. However, there have been several approaches for definition of social pharmacy by many authors and researchers. One group of authors have attempted to define a widely accepted term of social pharmacy as, “The endeavor to integrate drugs into a broader perspective and to include legal, ethical, economic, political, social, communicative, and psychological aspects.

Social pharmacy research is linked to the Health System or Service Research (HSR). The focus of HSR is concerned with improving the health of a community. The aim of HSR is to provide health managers at all levels, as well as community leaders, with the relevant information they need to make decisions about the problem they are facing. Therefore, it is concerned with both understanding and improving pharmacy practice and medicine use in a society. The research in social pharmacy is usually based on both quantitative (e.g. survey study) and qualitative methods such as interviews, observation and focus groups studies.  It is interesting to mention that research in social pharmacy in developing countries including India is often criticized as dubious research in pharmacy field by researchers mainly involved in experimental research. These perceptions are considered illogical by other school of social researchers.

Over the last decades pharmacy curricula and training in the developed world have been changed by incorporating social pharmacy to provide pharmacy graduates with more opportunities that promote constant interaction with World Health Organisation has long believed that pharmacists would make a greater contribution to the provision of health care. The notion of social pharmacy, the key course that has rendered pharmacists of the developed nations to become front line pharmacists, is still unknown in most parts of the developing country. Overview on the recent literature on pharmacy education has shown that pharmacy practice and/or social pharmacy within pharmacy practice is the least developed sector of the pharmacy profession. It is interesting to mention that the recently introduced Pharm. D. curriculum does not specifically mention social pharmacy.

Social pharmacy enables the pharmacy profession to act and take responsibility in its full scope with the problems of pharmacy and medicines in society. What is the most appropriate treatment of an illness, in a cost effective way and with a safe medicine? The answers lie with social pharmacy research, training and teaching. Social pharmacy will play more crucial role in future pharmacy. In its attempts to restructure pharmacy practice in consonance with global role, pharmacy education in India had come as single roadblock. The need of the hour is a paradigm shift in the structure of pharmacy education. There is need to incorporate pharmaceutical sociology component in the current curriculum so that pharmacy graduates can fulfill professional obligations as a health care personnel.

Regards
Rutherford
Managing Editors
Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Education