EDITORIAL

EDITORIAL

The year 2015 has started on a good note as the department of pharmacy garnered many accolades to its credit. The year kicked off by honoring the Clinicians of KIMS Alshifa.

 Like every year our 3rd, 4th and 5th Pharm D students secured rank at the University level and my hearty congratulations to the students for their exemplary achievement. The students also bagged 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize in the poster presentation held at Manipal College of  Pharmaceutical Sciences.Our Faculty Mr. Levin Thomas (Asst Professor) also bagged the 1st prize for poster presentation. Congratulates to all the winners!

The department of pharmacy  practice was actively involved in various community events to bring in social awareness. Polio Eradication, 5day drug awareness Program on Filariasis were conducted in Perintalmanna as part of community events to raise awareness. A One day Women’s Conference was organized by Private Pharmacist Association at Malappuram District. Our faculty and students actively participated in the conference and the meritorious students were recognized with a  memento by the Organizers. The details are covered in this issue.

Ms. Athira and team (5th Pharm D students) took a remarkable step by giving a one day class on drug abuse to the Jail inmates of Perintalmanna on January 26th 2015, The Republic day. I Applaud  Ms. Athira and her team for being brave enough to come forward with this initiative and educating the jail inmates. I am proud of our students for conveying their ideas and having influenced the prisoners in a positive way!

Each Clinical Pharmacist must use their education to improve the health of the patients and  the public health by organizing such educative programs. Society needs a gatekeeper who manages and over look the usage of drugs for the public safety.

Dr T.N. K Suriaprakash, Principal of Alshifa College of Pharmacy has authored an article titled- Do Pharmacy Colleges in India need ACPE’s Accreditation? I am glad this article will give an awareness about ACPE to the readers.

Few more interesting article additions which makes our Newsletter complete are from Mrs. Shalini, (Asst Professor, AIMST University Malaysia) Titled -PharmD - Global Acceptance. and another notable subject line written by Dr. Mohanta titled- Calcium Channel Blockers Make Dangerous Combination with most Macrolide Antibiotics.. These articles will be a good read for all the healthcare professionals.

 We hope this issue of our newsletter will give a glimpse of all the department activities and events, accomplishments and visions.!

Thanks and Regards

Editor in chief

Dilip. C

clinpharmindia.blog,

shifaclinpharm newsletter

Dear Healthcare Professionals!

It has been an eventful quarter for the Department of Pharmacy Practice, Al Shifa College of Pharmacy. An entire area in KIMS Al Shifa Hospital has been earmarked for the department and new classrooms have been constructed so that all the batches of Pharm.D, Pharm.D (Post Baccalaureate) and M.Pharm (Pharmacy Practice) can be accommodated at any given time. A new HoD room that gives view of all proceedings has also been constructed.

On March 17^th and 18^th 2015, along with Dr. Dilip, HOD and Mr. Linu Mohan, Assistant Professor, I attended a ‘WORKSHOP AND ‘ONE ON ONE’ MEETING’ On ACPE INTERNATIONAL CERTIFICATION PROGRAM’ at Banagalore. It was organized by Dr. B. Suresh, President, Pharmacy Council of India under the aegis of IACP, Chennai. I have given my impression on this workshop and its outcome separately as an article.

Dr. Mohanta has written an article titled ‘Calcium Channel Blockers Make Dangerous Combination with Most Macrolide Antibiotics’ and which is truly an eye opener to all pharma professionals. It is common to see hypertension patients who take amlodipine regularly also prescribed and take macrolides during monsoon. We bestow our thanks to Dr. Mohanta for this article.

Department of Pharmaceutics is organizing a seminar on 28^th April in our college campus. The brochure will be sent to all colleges and published in the college website in the first week of April. Dr. KLK Paranjothi, Industrial Consultant and Expert faculty, Al Shifa College of Pharmacy, Dr. A.B. Remashree, Project Director, Kottakkal Arya Vaidya Sala and Dr. Kaladhar Kamalasanan, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram are the resource persons for the seminar. After the lecture sessions there will be poster presentation as well.

All these activities are possible because of support and encouragement from our most respected, Mr. P. Unneen, Managing Trustee, Al Shifa College of Pharmacy and all the directors of Shifa Medicare Trust!

Dr. TNK. Suriyaprakash

Principal

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TELEMEDICINE – A FUTURE PERSPECTIVE OF HEALTH CARE

TELEMEDICINE – A FUTURE PERSPECTIVE OF HEALTH CARE

BY,

BELSY BOBAN, PHARM D, FIFTH YEAR.

Telemedicine is the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic communication technology to improve a patient’s clinical health status and standard of care. Telemedicine can create applications and services using two-way video, email, smart phones, wireless tools and other forms of telecommunication technology.

What Services Can Be Provided By Telemedicine?

Primary care and specialist referral services, this usually involves the use of live interactive video or the use of store and forward informations for later view.

Remote patient monitoring, includes a specific vital sign, such as blood glucose or heart ECG or a variety of indicators for homebound patients.

Consumer medical and health information includes the use of the Internet to obtain specialized health information and on-line discussion groups.

Medical education provides continuing medical education credits for health professionals and special medical education seminars for targeted groups in remote locations. 

Types of telemedicine

1. Real Time or Synchronous: It could be as simple as a telephone call or as complex as telemedical video conference and telerobotic surgery. It requires the presence of both parties at the same time and a telecommunication link between them that allows a real-time interaction to take place. Video-conferencing equipment is one of the most common forms. 

2. Store-and-forward telemedicine or Asynchronous: It involves acquiring medical data (like medical history, images, etc) and then transmitting this data to a doctor or medical specialist at a convenient time later for assessment offline. It does not require the presence of both parties at the same time. Examples are tele-pathology, tele-radiology, and tele-dermatolgy.

What Are the Benefits of Telemedicine?

Telemedicine has been growing rapidly because it offers four fundamental benefits:

Improved Access – Telemedicine has a unique capacity to increase service to millions of new patients.

Cost Efficiencies – Reducing or containing the cost of healthcare is one of the most important reasons for funding and adopting telehealth technologies.

Improved Quality – Studies have consistently shown that the quality of healthcare services delivered via telemedicine is as good those given in traditional in-person consultations.

Patient Demand – Consumers want telemedicine. The greatest impact of telemedicine is on the patient, their family and their community. Using telemedicine technologies reduces travel time and related stresses for the patient.

IN INDIAN SCENARIO:    Telemedicine programs actively supported by:

• Dept. of Information Technology (DIT)

• Indian Space Research Organization

• NEC Telemedicine program for North-Eastern states

• Apollo Hospitals

• Asia Heart Foundation

• State governments

• Telemedicine technology also supported by some other private organizations

Telemedicine in Kerala

     The setting up of Telemedicine & Telehealth education facilities in Kerala was developed under DIT. The project will link three specialty medical hospitals at MCH, SCTIMST & the RCC, with 4 District/ Rural Hospital. The CancerNet is telemedicine system for Cancer Patients in Kerala, which is the establishment of an Oncology Network for providing advanced services in Oncology. Cancer detection, treatment, pain relief, patient follow-up and continuity are the roles of patient care in peripheral hospitals (nodal centres) of Regional Cancer Centre (RCC). It connects RCC, Trivandrum and five nodal outreach centres.

– More than 3000 patients treated/consulted at these nodal centres

– Major financial benefit to patients

REFERENCE

1. http://www.americantelemed.org/about-telemedicine/what-is-telemedicine

2. Debjit Bhowmik et al., Telemedicine - An Innovating Healthcare System in India: The pharma innovation journal; Vol. 2 (4) 2013:page  no. 1-20.

BY,

BELSY BOBAN, PHARM D, FIFTH YEAR.

Roflumilast: First Phosphodiesterase 4 Inhibitor Approved for Treatment of COPD.

Roflumilast: First Phosphodiesterase 4 Inhibitor Approved for Treatment of COPD.

Anas.M

Fifth Year Pharm D Student, Dept of Pharmacy Practice.

Al-Shifa College Of Pharmacy

.

Roflumilast Roflumilast is an oral, once-daily selective phosphodi­esterase-4 inhibitor with a broad range of action against inflammatory cells playing a major role in COPD. It decreases swelling in the lungs. It was approved by CDSCO in 2013 for use as concomitant maintenance treatment of severe COPD along with  bronchodilators in patients with frequent exacerbations in the past. Roflumilast is not a bronchodilator and is not indicated for the relief of acute brochospasm.

COPD is a progressive, irreversible lung disease. Symptoms of COPD include breathlessness, chronic cough and excessive Sputum production. A significant worsening of symptoms - called an    exacerbation-can last several weeks and often requires substantial medical intervention, including hospitalization. The prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has been increas­ing over the last few decades and is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. It was the sixth leading cause of death in 1990 and is expected to be the third leading cause of death by 2020. Acute COPD exacerbations are a leading cause of hospitalizations, associated with US $29.5 billion in direct costs. The Global initia­tive for chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) guidelines state that the strongest predictor for future exacerbations is a history of previous exacerbations.

One novel class of compounds that may deliver therapeutic benefit in COPD are phosphodiesterase (PDE) 4 inhibitors. PDE is a generic term that describes a large super family of enzymes that catalyze the breakdown of cyclic adenosine-3’, 5’-monophosphate (cAMP) and/or cyclic guanosine-3’,5’-monophosphate (cGMP) to their respective inactive nucleotide 5’-monophosphates. Eleven distinct PDE families have been identified, though most of the anti-inflammatory activity is believed to result from the inhibition of PDE4, for which there is clinical precedent.In April 2010, the European Medicines Agency Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use recommended approval of roflumilast, a selective phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitor, for the “maintenance treatment of severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, FEV1 post bronchodilator less than 50% predicted) associated with chronic bronchitis in adult patients with a history of frequent exacerbations as add-on to bronchodilator treatment”.Selective phosphodiesterase (PDE)-4 inhibitor; PDE-4 inhibition leads to accumulation of intracellular cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) in lung tissue.Roflumilast 500 mcg daily improve lung function and reduced exacerbations in patients with more severe COPD, especially those with chronic bronchitis, frequent exacerbations, or who required frequent rescue inhaler therapy. It is contraindicated in patients with severe liver impairment and hypersensitivity. Belongs to pregnancy category C. Indeed,  Theophylline is a weak, nonselective PDE inhibitor and has been used in clinical practice as a bronchodilator for more than 70 years.

Daliresp is the first and only selective phosphodiesterase-4 (PDE4) inhibitor approved and is an oral tablet taken once daily with or without food. Advantages of roflumilast over inhaler therapy are that it is an oral tablet and only needs to be taken once daily.Roflumilast tab and its combination with Salmeterol was approved by CDSCO in 2013 and got approval for marketing in india from june 2014, as a treatment to reduce the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations in patients with severe COPD associated with chronic bronchitis and a history of exacerbations. Roflumilast is not a bronchodilator and is not indicated for the relief of acute brochospasm.

Mechanism Of Action

·         Roflumilast inhibits PDE4, which lead to an accumulation of intracellular.   While the specific mechanism is not well defined, the therapeutic effect of Roflumilast is thought to be related to the effects of increased intracellular cAMP in lung cells.  

Mechanism Of Action Roflumilast