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2. COMMUNITY PHARMACY TODAY 2.1. Role of the Community Pharmacist According to the new Joint FIP/WHO

Guidelines on Good Pharmacy Practice,

pharmacists are specially trained health

professionals who are charged by their

national or appropriate (e.g. state or

provincial) authorities with the

management of the distribution of

medicines to consumers, and to engage in

appropriate efforts to assure their safe and

efficacious use. In addition, pharmacists are

accepting greater responsibility for

medicines-use outcomes and evolving their

practices to provide patients with enhanced

medicines-use services 21.

Pharmacists, in their role as gatekeepers,

have responsibilities for the following

aspects of the process of medicines use,

promotion of healthy lifestyles and

prevention of disease 2, 21: