Technological Disintermediation: A Path to CSHP 2015 and Beyond.

even work on nursing units to directly address production and dosepreparation issues related to medications. Pharmacists will no longer be required to enter orders at a location distant from patients, and they will have limited need to spend hours in the library researching a particular case so that they can assist in designing the best possible medication regimen for the patient. All the knowledge and information that pharmacists need will be at their disposal, and, conversely, the distribution system will function without input from pharamcists. Pharmacists will be truly free to work on the nursing units and to take full advantage of the opportunities associated with pharmaceutical care, achieving both the objectives of CSHP 2015 and the rewarding careers that they envisioned when they first graduated as pharmacists. The ultimate outcomes of such a bold step would be significant and measurable improvements in quality of care and the safety of medication use. There is no better reason to grasp the opportunity offered by these technologies than the prospect of truly disintermediating pharmacists from their manual, product-based environment and fulfilling the promise made to patients through the Oath of Maimonides.