Do Pharmacy colleges in India need ACPE’s Accreditation?

Do Pharmacy colleges in India need ACPE’s Accreditation?

When we conducted Pharmacy Practice Module Advanced Learning Series-8 in November 2014, the International speakers, Dr. Sheron See, St. Johns University of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, New York, USA and Dr. Michelle Martin, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA used to discuss about ACPE with us during many interactions. After the inaugural address of Pharmacy Practice Module on 5^th November 2014, Dr. B Suresh, President, Pharmacy Council of India, mentioned about it and also about impending workshop in few months’ time, to create awareness about ACPE.

That  WORKSHOP AND ‘ONE ON ONE’ MEETING’ On ACPE INTERNATIONAL CERTIFICATION PROGRAM’ held on March 17^th& 18^th at Bangalore was an eye opener to the participating colleges, which was very few. During the workshop, on first day both Dr. Peter Vlasses, Executive Director and Dr. Mike Rouse, Director, International Services, Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, USA elaborated on various aspects of Accreditation process by ACPE. On second day, there was one to one meeting and along with Dr. Dilip and Mr. Linu Mohan, we had an hour interaction with Dr. Peter Vlasses regarding ACPE and he clarified our doubts and apprehensions.

Now, let’s get back to the title! We have B Pharm, D Pharm, and M Pharm courses for very long in India catering to the needs of Pharma Industry and retail Pharmacy Shops.  Our presence in hospital was limited to Pharmacies with these degrees, to be honest. In Industry, we made our presence felt in manufacturing, quality control labs and R&D labs.

But, pharmacy is a unique course where we study Chemistry, Physics and Biology of the drug extensively but using that knowledge was bare minimum. These courses were helpful to gain entry in to the industry and we need to have lot of training inside industry before embarking on something new.

We, pharmacists, know about the drug, but something is missing in the chain to link our knowledge and its implementation. There comes the course Pharm.D. Each and everything we learn about the drug will be fully utilized in patient care. The student starts visiting the hospital from 2^nd year onwards. The hours and days spent in the hospital increases by every year and in the last year, during internship, he learns practicing of pharmacy only in the hospital, see and learn how effective is his knowledge in the presence of medical practitioners, specialists and super specialists. Students also gains hands-on experience and fully confident about his Pharmacy knowledge the moment he/she steps out after 6 years.

Coming back to Pharm.D course, we accept that Pharm.D education have been in practice in USA for more than few decades and many other countries implemented it. We also implemented Pharm D concept from USA but fine-tuned with Indian Scenario. It is then imperative that we have to have the standards as prescribed for Pharm D Programme in USA to India.

The next pertinent question that arises is how their accreditation standards could be followed in India.  We can answer in two ways. First, we do not have our own accreditation policy like NBA for Pharm D. Second, when we want Pharm D course in line with Pharm.D course in USA, then better we follow their standards they envisage.

Finally, accepting that we should go for ACPE accreditation, what about cost of accreditation. Usually quality never comes at a low cost. We spend and strive for quality to International level; the returns in long time will always be matching. Hospitals will have quality Pharmacists, Patient care will be much better, present and future generation will be in safe hands!!! 

“QUALITY IMPROVEMENT THROUGH QUALITY ASSURANCE”

Dr.TNK Suriyaprakash (tnksuri@gmail.com

JOINING HANDS TO ENHANCE THE QUALITY OF PHARMACY EDUCATION
Dr. Suriaprakash (Principal), Dr. Dilip C (HOD of Pharmacy Practice) and Mr. Linu Mohan P (Asst. Professor) of Al Shifa College of Pharmacy, Kerala had a discussion with Dr. Pete Vlasses (USA)  and  Dr Mike Rouse, International services about certification of Pharmacy Practice department with Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) USA. The team also interacted with Dr. G Parthasarathi, Dearn,Faculty of pharmacy, JSS COP, Mysore in a “Workshop & One On One Meeting On ACPE International Certification Program” at Hotel Taj Vivanta, Bengaluru, India