Malcolm Brown

Contributor

Zen and the art of achieving excellence in pharmacy practice

Malcolm Brown examines “excellence” and endeavours to understand what it means.…

Drugs and desire

You are a customer seeking a pharmacy. A brilliantly illuminated green cross and window display,including large carboys containing coloured water, beckon you inside one door. There, images bombard you: vitamins, analgesics and toothpastes from different companies stretch, side by side, in brightly c…

A sociological perspective of pharmacy: To take or not to take

In this second in a series of occasional articles, the author describes how medicines fit into the comparatively new perspective of the sociology of the body.…

A sociological perspective of pharmacy: What is a drug?

In this article, the author shows how the definition of a drug has possessed different meanings over history. Even today, many different perspectives are possible.…

Pharmacists: emperors of entropy

The bench contains many prescriptions awaiting dispensing. Outside the dispensary, a group of patients wait, individuals displaying varying degrees of patience. Your head is down and you are working as fast as you can, yet you feel patients' eyes boring into you. Every minute, to you, seems like fiv…