Evolution of pharmacy practice and direct patient care roles for pharmacists in Bangladesh

The increasing emphasis on the pharmacists' role as the medication expert has created a global movement towards the implementation of clinical pharmacy practice, defined as any pharmacist in any setting who provides patient care. Although the pharmacy profession in Bangladesh has traditionally been oriented towards the pharmaceutical industry sector, direct patient care roles of pharmacists in both community and hospital practice settings are slowly beginning to emerge. The MEDLINE, Cochrane, Web of Science, and Scopus databases were searched for relevant reference articles for this study. This article presents a narrative review on the current state of pharmacy education and practice in Bangladesh, including a case study highlighting the successful implementation of the country's first clinical pharmacy team-based care model at a private, tertiary-care hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Challenges and lessons learned initiating advanced hospital pharmacy practice and a decentralized team-based care model in Bangladesh may provide insight for institutions in similar settings seeking to expand the role of pharmacists.