Testing common sense

It's always interesting when something that is intuitively likely to work turns out not to. This week, two research papers examine the role of community pharmacists in primary care. Community pharmacists are well placed to provide advice on medications. They have the knowledge and skills and are accessible when doctors may not be, so in theory they could help to tackle social inequalities as well as improving health. Sadly, as summarised by Peri Ballantyne in an accompanying editorial (doi: 10.1136/bmj.39213.660394.80), the studies found that pharmacists' advice didn't have much impact on behaviour or health outcomes and may even have made things worse. Richard Holland and …