Pharmacist Expert Witnesses
Key insights on cases involving medication errors and pharmacist malpractice
Pharmacists are professionals licensed to prepare, dispense, and provide patients with medication and other healthcare products. They are experts in medications, their uses, side effects, and interactions with other drugs and medical conditions. Pharmacists have expanded from the traditional role of merely dispensing medications to an integrated member of the health care team directly involved in patient care.
In the United States, pharmacists must hold a Doctor of Pharmacy degree (PharmD). Board Certification for pharmacists is administered by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) and the Board of Pharmacy Specialties (BPS).
Some pharmacists have additional training in a sub-specialty, such as:
- Ambulatory care
- Cardiology
- Compounded sterile preparations
- Critical care
- Emergency medicine
- Geriatrics
- Infectious disease
- Nuclear pharmacy
- Nutrition support
- Oncology
- Pediatrics
- Pharmacotherapy
- Psychiatric pharmacy
- Solid organ transplantation pharmacy
Pharmacists are distinct from pharmacologists, who are medical scientists who study the effects of drugs and drug interactions.
What is pharmacist malpractice?
Pharmacist malpractice typically involves dispensing the wrong medication or wrong dosage or failing to account for medication interactions or allergies. Some cases also involve failing to provide correct instructions for use or failing to warn a patient about potential side effects.
An experienced, Board-Certified pharmacist can testify regarding the applicable standards of care and whether the defendant pharmacist met or breached that standard. Pharmacists are also valuable expert witnesses, more broadly in medical malpractice and nursing home negligence cases involving medication interactions or allergies, as well as personal injury matters that may involve an accident caused by a prescription drug.
Contact us today to find your expert witness
For decades, Rieback Medical-Legal Consultants has been helping some of America’s finest injury attorneys get the medical expertise they need. Our network includes highly qualified pharmacists who are prepared to testify in depositions and at trial. Contact us today for a free case summary review.