APhA enlists comedian Brad Sherwood to promote pharmacy education

WASHINGTON A professional organization for pharmacists has enlisted comedian Brad Sherwood to create an educational campaign to shed light on what happens behind the pharmacy counter.

In recognition of American Pharmacist Month, the American Pharmacists Association has launched its Behind-the-Counter Encounters campaign, supported by McNeil Consumer Healthcare. In a series of video vignettes featuring Sherwood in character as a pharmacist and a series of customers, APhA sheds light on a typical day in the life of a pharmacist and on pharmacists’ role in health care and how that role has expanded.

According to an APhA survey, 68 percent of consumers don’t know their pharmacists? names, but when they asked their pharmacists questions, 99 percent received the help they needed.

“Like most people, I wasn’t really sure what pharmacists do,” Sherwood said in a statement. “So, I was intrigued when the APhA asked me to help celebrate pharmacists by creating these entertaining vignettes. Now, I know pharmacists go above and beyond filling prescriptions by playing an important role in helping people with their healthcare needs.”

Sherwood is a cast member of the TV show “Whose Line Is it Anyway?”