History of Pharmacy
Introduction to Pharmacy
Pharmacy is the fastest growing, dynamic profession offering a wealth of opportunities. The community pharmacy was established in America since the 1920s.
The first clinical pharmacy program to adopt as a degree of Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program was the University of Southern California in 1950.
Higher professional standing began to enter in the profession from 1960s onward. In the past more focus was on the subjects like basic sciences of chemistry and physics; medicine-related subjects such as Pharmacognosy, botany, pharmacology, physiology, and public health; and practice-related subjects such as small-scale pharmaceutical manufacturing, prescription filling, and retail sales operations.
But now, the Pharmaceutical Curriculum comprises of all information on diagnosis and treatment of disease. Time has come that a pharmacist has a duty to assist their “customers” as to how to “the cure for an ailment,” they have to treat a disease without or contrary to a prescription from a physician.
History of Pharmacy Profession
The history of pharmacy as an independent science dates back to the first third of the 19th century. Before then, pharmacy evolved from antiquity as part of medicine. The history of pharmacy coincides well with the history of medicine, but it’s important that there is a distinction between the two topics.
Pharmaceuticals is one of the most-researched fields in the academic industry, but the history surrounding that particular topic is sparse compared to the impact its made world-wide. Before the advent of pharmacists, there existed apothecaries that worked alongside priests and physicians in regard to patient care Between 60 and 78 AD, the Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides wrote a five-volume book, De materia medica, covering over 600 plants and coining the term materia medica. It formed the basis for many medieval texts, and was built upon by many Middle Eastern scientists during the Islamic Golden Age. In Japan, at the end of the Asuka period and the early Nara period (710–794), the men who fulfilled roles similar to those of modern pharmacists were highly respected. The place of pharmacists in society was expressly defined in the Taihō Code (701) and re-stated in the Yōrō Code .