A Study on Professional Role of the Clinic Pharmacist in Taiwan Abstract To lower the cost and enhance the quality of medical service, the Government implemented the National Health Insurance in 1995, and the system of Separation of Medicine and Pharmacy in 1997. However, the separation caused both sides of doctor and pharmacist to ignite a vigorous battle in striving and competing for dispensing right. Thus made the government to adopt a regionalized and phased parallel system to execute the separation . In other words, local medical doctors can either hire pharmacists to fill the prescriptions in the clinics or hand the prescriptions to patients and have the prescriptions filled in drugstores. This study chose quantitative method to explore the role of clinic pharmacist, and to further explore the relation between the separation of the two services and the professional role of pharmacists. Questionnaires were distributed to all clinic doctors and pharmacists in the city of Kaohsiung, the results were collected as the resource of important evidentiary data. Through Gap Analysis¡Bt test¡BMultivariate Analysis of Variance¡Band Pearson Correlation, we¡¦ve come to the following findings: there is indeed a gap between doctors and pharmacists regarding the understanding and recognition toward the professional role of pharmacist, especially to the ability in providing medication consultation demonstrated by pharmacist; contrary opinions were held by the two sides regarding the separation of the two services, the position of clinic pharmacists, as well as the importance of and support to patients¡¦ right in knowing the medication they are taking, physicians even consider the hiring of pharmacists is only for fulfilling the requirement of the National Health Insurance System; the recognition between doctors and pharmacists to pharmacist¡¦s professional role (patients medicating instruction, ability in providing medication consultation, and double-checking of physician¡¦s prescription) is actually related in proportion with their attitudes toward the separation of Medicine and Pharmacy ,and the position of clinic pharmacists. It is hoped that the conclusion of this study is helpful in improving the understanding between physicians and pharmacists, thus alleviate the long-term conflict in the issue, enhance mutual respect to professional right, point out a crisp direction for the Government to follow when designing and promoting the system of the Separation of Medicine and Pharmacy. Key words: Separation of Medicine and Pharmacy, Clinic Pharmacist Professional Role