Update: The clinical pharmacist as principal investigator

This paper summarizes the history of the clinical pharmacist as a principal investigator across a wide range of research venues and disciplines. Clinical pharmacists have served as principal investigators on a wide range of grants and contracts from all available funding sources, including peer-reviewed funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIH Conference on Pharm.D. Pathways to Biomedical Research in 2006 (http://www.nigms.nih .gov/Training/PharmD/) is a strong endorsement of current and future opportunities for clinical pharmacist-directed research. Both research funding and resultant scholarship have increased during the past decade, primarily in academic settings. Through an American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy database, the number of faculty with a Pharm.D. as their terminal degree who received NIH funding increased from 5 in 1998 to 24 in 2007. Use of www.ClinicalTrials.gov provided a stronger picture of clinical pharmacist research, with 523 studies performed by those with a Pharm.D. degree when searched in 2009. Because of the lack of a central database, it is difficult to discern the true number and extent of clinical pharmacist research funding and scholarship. Scientific efforts are still required to completely understand the impact of research and scholarship by clinical pharmacists. Most important, clinical pharmacist development needs to be an academic and practice priority to ensure an adequate supply of clinical pharmacists as principal investigators to continue making substantial and meaningful contributions in meeting the needs of patients, improving public health, and expanding the roles of clinical pharmacists.