The Impact of Natural and Social Science on Pharmacy

Abstract

The absorption of new knowledge has always been important. In the past, new knowledge that filtered down into the curricular revisions at pharmacy schools almost always fell within the domain of the physical sciences. New compounds, analytical devices, catalysts, and reagents were generally understood and were mere evolutionary additions to the basic physical sciences. Until the mid-twentieth century, pharmacy education was based almost solely upon the natural or physical sciences-the systematized knowledge of nature and the physical world which includes chemistry, physics, zoology, anatomy, and the other subjects that we study and classify as biomedical. There is nothing inherently wrong with this orientation, and, of course, the natural sciences are a prime aspect of pharmacy education and pharmacy practice. Yet, I would estimate that for the past 40 years there has been a quiet revolution under way. Progress has been slow and steady, even unpalpable to some. Nevertheless, the orientation in pharmacy education and practice toward the exclusive study of the natural sciences, and thus the product, has been altered by an ever-growing focus on the patient. The development of the social sciences has been partially responsible for this change in orientation. The social sciences involve the study of people and how they behave alone; how people interact