Studying pharmaceutical care: difficult but necessary.

Research into the impact of pharmaceutical care need not be complex, but it is difficult in real-world settings. Pharmaceutical care projects need a committed project manager, dedicated pharmacists, an involved payer, and patients who believe they have a problem that needs to be addressed. Significant differences in outcomes are more likely with some chronic diseases than with others. Adequate funding of pharmaceutical care studies is needed to support identification of drug-related problems and outcomes in larger numbers of patients and over longer time periods. Demonstrating changes in patient satisfaction with providers and in health-related quality of life is difficult.