and patients revolved around the original concept of compliance
(1. the act or process of complying to a desire, demand,
or proposal or coercion; 2. a disposition to yield to
others),1 understood as professional dominance. In this
model, the prescriber chooses the therapy and specifies the
conditions of its use, the caregiver exhorts the patient to
proceed as required, and the dispenser reinforces the need
to “take as directed.” In educational programs for pharmacy
practice and in automated computer systems to assist in
the process, that phrase is a veritable institution in itself—
from verbal instructions to the product label.