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Economic Factors Increasing costs of medicines and the drug component of national healthcare expenditures;

Increasing penetration of generics in ambulatory and inpatient care;

Workforce and Reimbursement issues are trends that span all areas of practice.

Health-System Factors Cost, accessibility and the ability to provide high quality healthcare with best possible outcomes are escalating

concerns worldwide;

Substantive emphasis on patient safety; This challenge is increasingly hampered by growing healthcare

worker shortages, affecting healthcare delivery around the

world;

Increasing governmental (e.g. WHO) concerns about the length and cost of training of health personnel.

Regulatory Factors Economic liberalization and its effects on pharmacy ownership and professional autonomy;

Risk management plans (e.g. REMS) are being increasingly required;

Necessity for the manufacturing industry to ensure integrity of drug supply by using tools such as bar-coding and electronic

tagging (RFID);

Different perspectives on pharmacy practice and procedures between pharmacy practice community and the

pharmaceutical industry (e.g. bar coding, generic prescribing,

REMS, pharmacy education);

Quality movement: ISO, accreditation organizations e.g. The Joint Commission, various boards creating uniform regulations

to protect public health;

Constant changing regulatory environment for practice and industry, which demands rapid adaptation.

Pharmacy Profession

Factors

It is speculated that the number of trained and competent pharmacists may be either unavailable or inadequately

distributed to meet population needs. This is a result of

varying education and training processes of pharmacists and

pharmaceutical scientists around the world. These processes

are currently being scrutinized in light of the needs of

healthcare systems which are realising the imperative role of

the pharmacist through both experience and research