SOCIAL/BEHAVIOURAL PHARMACY—THE MINNESOTA EXPERIENCE

The earliest activities in this field in the United States occurred at the University of Wisconsin, where, in the 1950s, Dr William Apple studied in the Business School following his graduation from the pharmacy faculty, and, after having completed a PhD, returned to the Pharmacy School to offer a Pharmacy Administration programme with postgraduate studies as well as an undergraduate curriculum. Almost simultaneously, a similar event occurred at Purdue University, where Dr Robert Evanson undertook courses in the Business School and returned to teach at the School of Pharmacy, with an emphasis on retailing and small‐business management, in contrast to the general marketing and management orientation at Wisconsin. At about the same time, Dr Joseph McEvilla undertook the same process at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. Dr McEvilla established a programme in pharmaceutical economics that was intended as a preparation for advanced work in, as well as for the study of, the pharmaceutical industry. Shortly thereafter, a programme began at the University of Mississippi in pharmaceutical marketing, and briefly, there was a programme at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan under the direction of Dr Stephen Wilson. Dr Glenn Sonnendecker directed a related programme in the history of pharmacy at the University of Wisconsin. These names, dates, and places serve to set the stage for the development of what might have been one additional pharmacy administration programme at the University of Minnesota. A programme leading to a Master of Science degree was established in the mid‐1960s by Dr Lawrence Weaver and Professor Hugh Kabat. A petition to the University authorities to offer the PhD degree was approved in 1972, and I was hired to direct that programme in 1973.