Pharmaceuticals are the most common medical intervention, and their potential to both help and harm is enormous^[1]

• Annually, 1 billion prescriptions, or 12.5 per person, are filled at U.S. pharmacies.[2]
• Drug-related morbidity and mortality costs exceed $177 billion annually in the U.S. in 2000, exceeding the amount spent on the medications themselves.[3]

[1]“Pharmaceuticals: The Good and the Bad.” Informing the Future: Critical Issues in Health, Fourth Edition, Institutes of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences, 2007, pp. 13–17. Accessed 4 Jan. 2018. http://nationalacademies.org/hmd/~/media/files/about%20the%20iom/itf4.pdf. [2] “Total Number of Retail Prescription Drugs Filled at Pharmacies.” The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 30 Aug. 2017, http://www.kff.org/health-costs/state-indicator/total-retail-rx-drugs/?currentTimeframe=0&sortModel=%7BcolId%3ALocation%2Csort%3Aasc%7D. Accessed 4 Jan. 2018. [3] Ernst, F R, and A J Grizzle. “Managing drug-related morbidity and mortality in the patient-centered medical home.” Journal of the American Pharmaceutical Association, vol. 42, no. 2, 2001, pp. 192–199., http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.469.2801&rep=rep1&type=pdf. Accessed 4 Jan. 2018.