Partnering in Pharmaceutical Education: A Model to Help Industry Shape Health Care Reform

Abstract

Analyzing the health care system as a system which involves the entire human population will help one understand the effect on its balance by the ethical, philosophical, and cultural forces that have acted on its evolution through the centuries. There is then a possibility, through science, technology, and society (STS) education, which has the development of an ecological society as one of its underpinnings, of affecting this balance in a way that would be favorable for the pharmaceutical industry. The model of partnering in pharmaceutical education (PIPE) is a type of education which is directed toward the interface of science, technology, and society and may be deployed in any therapeutic area to accomplish such a task.

With educational resources being strained throughout the nation, and because the pharmaceutical industry has numerous resources that may be shaped into creative directions, it is necessary for the industry to take a leadership role. Using the appropriate model, the industry will catalyze health care reform by leading an educational team-building and partnering effort. Since education is the immediate deliverable that will be sought at each component of the model, funding required may be minimal, and there are significant possibilities of creating new challenging and innovative jobs by redeployment. Because of the major educational impact that emanates from each interaction within the model, relatively simultaneously, other deliverables follow that may change health care paradigms, such as disease state knowledge and standards of care, toward a common goal in an accelerated and concerted manner.