A usual trip to the pharmacy goes a little like this. Walk in, go to the counter, and hand in the prescription. Wait 10, maybe 15 minutes. Pay for your script, grab the bag.  Next, out the door and start thinking about dinner. Pretty typical, right?

Surprisingly, yes. The 2008 Parata Prescription Survey of the nation's 225 million prescription-takers found 80% of people spend less than two minutes talking to their pharmacist when they pick up their prescriptions and 45 percent don't talk to pharmacists at all.

Your pharmacist can be a great source of information.  They can:

• Determine if you are taking your medicine correctly.
• Counsel on potential drug interactions, preventing overdose and unwanted side effects.
• Provide prescription and nonprescription medicine information.  For example, when we launched alli, many pharmacists received resources that included information relevant to the alli program.

So the next time you go to the pharmacist, ask questions. Remember a pharmacist is the most accessible health care professional in America.