A Review of Medication Therapy Management - A Service from Pharmacist

In the past Pharmacists' role is to be called upon only when needed to prepare and dispense medication following the Doctor's prescriptions. Looking at the pharmacist's actual capability, they could largely ease the load in Primary Healthcare system. Their roles have evolved until today in the United States, Medication Therapy Management was established.

Medication therapy management (MTM) is a partnership of the pharmacist, the patient or their caregiver, and other health professionals that promotes the safe and effective use of medications and helps patients achieve the targeted outcomes from medication therapy.
MTM was first proposed by Ronald Jordan, former APhA president.

MTM in action involves the pharmacist keeping the medication profile of a patient and efficiently provide pharmaceutical care to them in various manners, such as making the right prescription, ensuring the right drug usage, and following up on the outcomes of the treatments. Good news, the United States has this program in action in various parts of the country and still growing. This is a good chance for its citizen to improve their quality of life and pharmacist efficiently use their knowledge on site.

Several MTM programs for each chronic diseases were established for the Medicare Part D, but not limited to Diabetes mellitus, Chronic Heart Failure, and Hypertension.

All this happens in the retail pharmacy and clinics. Sadly for my country Thailand, the top-lined pharmacists define MTM as going out and visit the community - checking for medication errors. It is funny going door to door and save each person from medication errors while they never prevented medication errors from the prescription source in the first place!
Do you think MTM is invaluable to the people? Do share your thoughts!

(Credits: Diagram from Healthcare Economist: http://healthcare-economist.com/2010/08/17/medication-therapy-management/)