PHARMACIST-A VITAL LINK

PHARMACIST-A VITAL LINK

     Pharmacy is a health profession that links health sciences with chemical sciences and aims to ensure the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs.

     The scope of pharmacy practice includes more traditional roles such as compounding and dispensing medications, and it also includes more modern services related to health care, including clinical services, reviewing medications for safety and efficacy, and providing drug information. Pharmacists, therefore, are the experts on drug therapy and are the primary health professionals who optimize use of medication for the benefit of the patients.

        We were very privileged to be attending a one day national seminar at National College Of  Pharmacy, conducted by the Department of Pharmacy Practice, on the topic ‘PHARMACEUTICAL CARE’ on 16^th December 2013.

         The function was blessed by the presence of very renowned and very eminent professors. The topics dealt were ‘ CHRONOTHERAPUETICS AND CHRONOPHARMACOKINETICS IN PHARMACEUTICAL CARE , ROLE OF PHARMACEUTICAL CARE IN DISEASE MANAGEMENT , ADVERSE DRUG REACTION REPORTING IN HOSPITAL MANAGEMENT ’. We were also provided a golden chance to have hands on training on case analysis by SOAP format and causality assessment of adverse drug reaction.

          The seminar started by 10 Am by a short prayer.         The first session was on the topic ‘ CHRONOTHERAPEUTICS AND CHRONOPHARMACOKINETICS IN PHARMACEUTICAL CARE’ by Dr. Shobha Rani R Hiremath. Chronobiology is the science that deals with the phenomenon of rhythmicity in living beings whereas chronopharmacokinetics is the study of temporal changes in absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion and chronotherapeutics is the treatment method where drug availability in body is timed in relation to repetitive rhythms of aggravation of symptoms to produce the maximum outcome from the therapy. The class was administered in a self-explanatory mode and prior to dealing with the lead topics, Madam dealt with the different types of body rhythms and each topic was explained with a variety of examples.

          The second session was on the topic ‘ROLE OF PHARMACEUTICAL CARE IN DISEASE MANAGEMENT’ by Prof. Dr.Rajesh. V. Pharmaceutical care involves the process through which a pharmacist cooperates with a patient and other professionals in designing, implementing, and monitoring a therapeutic plan that will produce specific therapeutic outcomes for the patient. This in turn involves three major functions:

·         Identifying potential and actual drug-related problems

·         Resolving actual drug-related problems

·         Preventing drug-related problems.

            Sir made us well aware of the earlier situation that prevailed in the pharmacy field when pharmacists were just compounders. Slowly he mentioned the function changed to procurement, preparation and and evaluation of medicinal plants. Today the primary need is in identifying and meeting patient’s drug related need. The pharmacist is to have sound knowledge base and responsibility.

            The third session was on the topic ‘ADVERSE DRUG REACTION REPORTING IN HOSPITAL SETTING’ by Prof. Sonal Shekar M. ADR monitoring ensures that patients obtain safe and efficacious products and is the essential component for the effective use of medicines and for high quality pharmaceutical care. The very famous example of ADR is the incident of thalidomide that caused phocomelia and terfenadine that caused torsade de pointes. Sir also dealt on the topic pharmacovigilence. Pharmacovigilence is the science and activities that relates to detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects. The class was a need of the hour and was very informative.

        Finally we had hands on training presenting cases in the SOAP format and causality assessment of adverse drug reaction. We were well explained on how to and what to include in a case presented on the basis of SOAP format.

           The classes altogether were a blessing. The topics were also familiar and presented in a very easy manner that each one could finally benefit from it. We are very much thankful to each and every organizer of the function  for making it a very productive one.