The role of colleges of pharmacy in meeting the pharmacoeconomic needs of the pharmaceutical industry: a conference report.

To provide a forum for the exchange of ideas regarding the role of colleges of pharmacy in meeting the pharmaceutical industry's pharmacoeconomic needs, an invitational conference was conducted by the University of Arizona's Center for Pharmaceutical Economics on January 14 and 15, 1993, in Tucson, Arizona. This article represents the program design, program types, and consensus development portions of that conference. A description of current needs in pharmacoeconomics was obtained through transcripts of industry and university presentations, panel discussions, and question-and-answer sessions. Conference participants generally agreed that pharmacoeconomics holds great potential for making significant contributions to health care but that it will not flourish without deliberate and cooperative efforts. Participants from both industry and academia voiced the need for the two parties to work together to increase the visibility and understanding of pharmacoeconomics and to meet the training and staffing challenges facing the discipline.