Q&A: Functional Medicine Pharmacists Are Shifting Patient Care Beyond Prescriptions

With the health care sector observing pharmacy’s expansion in near real-time, long gone are the days where pharmacies and pharmacists need to rely solely on dispensing to progress through their profession. Instead, recent industry evolution has led pharmacy experts toward functional medicine and addressing much more than a patient’s chronic and ongoing symptoms.

In part 2 of our interview with Tarah Davis, PharmD, AFMC, owner of The Rooted Farmacy, she shares how a personal functional medicine journey that began at age 14 ultimately shaped her pharmacy career and led her to a practice model built around lifestyle, supplements, and root-cause care rather than reactive prescribing.

“I think we’re stuck in the middle of this insurance model. They don’t want us too sick, but they don’t want us too well,” she told Drug Topics®. “They want us in the middle; they don’t want to pay for the stuff on the outside. But functional medicine; it’s about getting out of the middle. It’s about thriving.”

She also makes a compelling case for why the current insurance-driven, appointment-to-appointment model of patient care is no longer sustainable, exploring what a thriving, patient-centered alternative could look like.

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Drug Topics: Can you provide us with a bit more background on your pharmacy experience and what led you to the role you operate within today?

Tarah Davis: I am a doctor of pharmacy, but before going to pharmacy school, I had my own functional medicine journey, starting when I was age 14. It kind of led me to pharmacy. I wanted to be able for someone to bring me a prescription and I say, ‘Hey, instead of this, let’s do this supplement or this lifestyle change.’

Since pharmacy school, I graduated 10 years ago this month, it’s just been a whirlwind of figuring out these different pieces and how to make that happen. Now, there’s this big functional medicine pharmacist movement, and just functional medicine movement in general. I’m just glad to be a part of it.

Drug Topics: How important is the general idea of functional medicine for improving patient health, and how do you expect this landscape to shift in the future?

Tarah Davis: I think functional medicine is critical. We have a population of sick people, and we want to be well, and we want to be vibrant. Right now, we’re just not there. I think we’re stuck in the middle of this insurance model. They don’t want us too sick, but they don’t want us too well. They want us in the middle; they don’t want to pay for the stuff on the outside. But functional medicine; it’s about getting out of the middle. It’s about thriving.

I think that we’re going to see that insurance model shift as there’s a shift in demand for functional medicine. Even beyond that, I think our patient care has to shift first. Our insurance models can’t continue to pay for a 10- or 15-minute visit once every 6 months to a year. My clients come to me, and I see them an hour and a half, and then once a month for 6 months. That’s our initial start together, and we sit down for an hour and a half, and then 45 minutes, and then they get a client success manager to make sure that they’re always moving forward, if they have any questions or concerns, always moving the needle.

I think that we have to mute or at least dull that noise from the outside for people that don’t completely understand functional medicine and want to move through it and function for their own so that we can help them stay focused on what actually matters and what actually moves the needle. Just an appointment-to-appointment model isn’t going to cut that anymore.

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