Emily Heil, PharmD, BCPS-AQ ID, assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, discusses how a new partnership between pharmacists and veterinarians will impact antimicrobial resistance.
Emily Heil, PharmD, BCPS-AQ ID, assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, discusses how a new partnership between pharmacists and veterinarians will impact antimicrobial resistance.
Interview Transcript (slightly modified for readability).
“I think the relationship between pharmacists and veterinarians is relatively new and this is going to be a really interesting area to see how it develops. Veterinarians are going to be so much more heavily involved with the use of antibiotics in agriculture, thanks to the
I think as pharmacists we can really help provide some education to our veterinary colleagues about why this issue is so important because they might not realize how the antimicrobial resistance crisis is really affecting human medicine because they don’t see that side of practice. So, we can work with our veterinary colleagues, to educate them about why their new role in providing oversight into how antibiotics [are] used in agriculture can be so important on the human health end.
I think it’s going to be a really beneficial partnership to work together because veterinarians will now have to use pharmacies to handle those antibiotic prescriptions, so I think it just provides a lot of opportunity for education both ways and its really new territory for both professions that traditionally have not had a lot of overlap and interactions.”
