The Role of the Pharmacist in Clinical Settings: Current Situation Regarding the Role of Pharmacists in Treating Outpatients and Potential Future Problems

According to the National Cancer Centerʼs Cancer Information Service, the number of people who died of cancer in Japan in 2017 was about 370,000, making it the leading cause of death among Japanese people and accounting for 1 in 3 deaths.Nevertheless, great progress has been made in the areas of cancer treatment and supportive care for patients with cancer, and most anticancer drugs are now available to outpatients, increasing the importance of outpatient care.With the aim of improving the management of cancer guidance services, the guidelines on charges for medical treatment and care were revised in 2014, and a fee for giving instruction to patients with cancer was introduced；the guidelines also specified the roles those providing medical care, including pharmacists, were expected to play.Previously, it was simple enough to calculate drug management instruction fees for inpatients, charges for drugs prescribed on the wards, etc., but the new instruction fee is the first one specifically aimed at pharmacists involved in cancer treatment for outpatients.In our hospital, we had already been providing drug guidance to outpatients with cancer, but we opened a new pharmacology outpatient clinic in April 2018 to provide guidance from specialists and accredited pharmacists with specialized knowledge about cancer.In this paper, we consider the current situation regarding the roles of pharmacists in treating outpatients in our hospital, along with potential that may arise in the future.