Pharmacists, also known as chemists or druggists, are health professionals who practice in pharmacy, the field of chemical sciences and health sciences focusing on safe and effective medication use. Pharmacists undergo university or graduate-level education to understand the biochemical mechanisms and actions of drugs, drug uses, therapeutic roles, side effects, potential drug interactions, and monitoring parameters. This is mated to anatomy, physiology, and pathophysiology. Pharmacists interpret and communicate this specialized knowledge to patients, physicians, and other health care providers.
The North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination (NAPLEX) is a standard examination created by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) to help individual state boards of pharmacy assess an individual's competency and knowledge so that he or she may be given a license to practice. The NABP has announced that as of November 2016, the fee to take the exam, the number of exam questions, and the time to sit for the exam have all increased.
A Doctor of Pharmacy is a professional doctorate in pharmacy. In some countries, it is a first professional degree and a prerequisite for licensing to practice the profession of pharmacy or to become a clinical pharmacist. In many countries they are allowed to practice independently and can prescribe drugs directly to patients. A Pharm.D program has significant experiential or clinical education components in introductory and advanced levels for the safe and effective use of drugs. Experiential education prepares graduates to be practice-ready, as they already have spent a significant amount of time training in areas of direct patient care and research. A Pharm.D graduate is entitled to prefix their name with "Dr."
The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) is a U.S.-based membership organization for private, nonprofit, K-12 schools. Founded in 1963, NAIS represents independent schools and associations in the United States, including day, boarding, and day/boarding schools; elementary and secondary schools; boys', girls', and coeducational schools. NAIS has affiliate members internationally as well.
Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) is a non-profit accreditation national agency recognized by Council on Higher Education Accreditation and the US Department of Education. It was established in 1932 as the American Council on Pharmaceutical Education and was renamed as the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education in 2003. ACPE is based in Chicago and accredits and pre-accredits schools offering PharmD degrees and providers of continuing pharmacy education. The accrediting body is made up of professionals from the American Council on Education, the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, the American Pharmacists Association, and the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy.
The Multistate Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination (MPJE) is a pharmacy law examination created by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) to help individual state boards of pharmacy assess the competency and knowledge of pharmacy law. It is required as a prerequisite for a pharmacy license by 43 states and the District of Columbia.
An online pharmacy, internet pharmacy, or mail-order pharmacy is a pharmacy that operates over the internet and sends the orders to customers through mail or shipping companies.
Touro University California is a private graduate school focused primarily on health professions and located on Mare Island in Vallejo, California. It is part of the Touro College and University System and is jointly administered with its sister campus Touro University Nevada.
The Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE) is an American agency recognized by the United States Department of Education for accreditation of programs and institutions offering the Doctor of Chiropractic degree. The CCE seeks to ensure the quality of chiropractic education in the United States by means of accreditation, educational improvement, and public information. The CCE develops accreditation criteria to assess how effectively programs or institutions plan, implement, and evaluate their mission and goals, program objectives, inputs, resources, and outcomes of their chiropractic programs. The CCE is also recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) and is a member of the Association of Specialized and Professional Accreditors (ASPA).
The Appalachian College of Pharmacy (ACP), formerly known as the University of Appalachia, College of Pharmacy, is a private doctoral pharmacy school located in Oakwood, Virginia. The school, established in 2003, is Virginia's only three-year accelerated Doctor of Pharmacy program. ACP's mission is to improve the health outcomes of rural and underserved communities, particularly those in Central Appalachia, through education, service, and scholarship.
The basic requirement for pharmacists to be considered for registration is an undergraduate or postgraduate pharmacy degree from a recognized university. In many countries, this involves a four- or five-year course to attain a master of pharmacy degree (MPharm). In the United States of America, students graduating after January 1, 2003, must complete a doctor of pharmacy degree to become a licensed pharmacist. This same requirement has been coming into place in other countries such as Canada and France.
LegitScript is a Portland, Oregon-based internet and payments compliance company that provides solutions for merchant monitoring, platform monitoring, and certification in high-risk industries. The company also performs investigative analyses for government agencies around the world regarding cybercrime, and offers brand monitoring for intellectual property infringement. Some of LegitScript's partners include Google, Facebook, Amazon, Bing, and Visa. LegitScript also works with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to monitor and investigate websites marketing FDA-regulated products.
The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy is an international association which assists member boards and jurisdictions in administrating its pharmacist license transfer and pharmacist competence assessment programs for the purpose of ensuring public health. The NABP membership is composed of 54 active members and 12 associate members. Active member boards include all 50 United States, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Associate member boards are Australia, Bahamas, and 10 Canadian provinces.
The McGuff Companies consist of three entities: a wholesale distributor of medical supplies, a compounding pharmacy, and a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility which produces sterile injectables for national and international distribution. The McGuff Companies have been featured in The International Journal of Pharmaceutical Compounding (IJPC)
Diplomat Pharmacy, Inc. is the largest independent provider of specialty pharmacy services in the United States. The company partners with manufacturers, payers, providers, hospitals, and more. Headquartered in Flint, Michigan, Diplomat has facilities across the United States and dispenses drugs in all 50 states. Diplomat offers specialized medication and medication management programs for patients with complex and chronic conditions such as cancer, hepatitis, multiple sclerosis, HIV and others.
The generic top-level domain (gTLD) .pharmacy was launched by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) in 2014 "to provide consumers around the world a means for identifying safe, legal, and ethical online pharmacies and related resources". A review by the NABP of more than 10,800 websites selling prescription drugs "found that nearly 97% do not follow pharmacy laws and standards established to protect the public health".
The Joint Commission of Pharmacy Practitioners (JCPP) is the largest professional delegation representing the interests of pharmacists within the United States. JCPP represents 13 professional associations in the field of pharmacy, developing consensus policy directives for the profession. It is well known for the 2014 development of "The Pharmacists’ Patient Care Process," which provides broad, consensus guidelines for how clinical pharmacists should practice.
Kenco Group, or Kenco, is a privately held Chattanooga, TN-based company that provides logistics services. Kenco specializes in distribution and fulfillment, transportation management, material handling services, and warehouse real estate management. The company is known for being the largest woman-owned third party logistics company in the United States. Its headquarters is located in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
The University of Iowa College of Pharmacy is an accredited pharmacy school located in Iowa City, Iowa. The college offers three undergraduate certificates, four areas of graduate study leading to the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree, and a four-year professional program leading to the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree. University of Iowa Pharmaceuticals (UIP), an FDA-registered manufacturer, is housed within the college. UIP is the largest and longest-running university-affiliated pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in the U.S.
