[What Is Involved in the Training Program for a Japanese Academic Detailer?].

'Academic Detailing' is an approach to providing doctors with information about medicines based on the latest non-commercial evidence-based data for proper prescription. Overseas, pharmacists have been active as academic detailers. Academic Detailing in Japan, as a new approach to disseminating comparative drug information based on basic pharmaceutical sciences and clinical evidence, will influence clinical decision making by doctors, and contribute to better patient-centered medical care. Pharmacists have been participating in ensuring the proper use of drugs by their patients by entering their homes or wards. However, in the future, it is necessary to take steps to improving pharmaceutical decision making by doctors. Therefore, we are considering the following educational points in the Japanese version of training an academic detailer. "A: We shall compare medicines based on basic pharmaceutical sciences and the latest non-commercial evidence-based data. B: We shall understand the point of using medicines based on the patient's condition. C: We shall choose cost-effective drugs from the viewpoint of pharmacoeconomics. And D: We shall acquire communication skills for effective academic detailing." In the future, this first class of Academic Detailers who facilitate academic detailing in the health care field will be pioneers. They will also participate in research to track and quantify the effects of academic detailing.