Aditya Birla Memorial Hospital, Pune, Maharashtra’s first Joint Commission International (JCI), USA and NABH Accredited Hospital, organised a National Conference ‘ABMH-Pharma Con 2013’ on pharmacy. The two-day conference witnessed more than 300 participants including speakers and delegates from hospitals across India.
Chief executive officers, chief operating officers, medical administrators, quality heads from hospitals like Apollo Hospitals, Ahmedabad; Max Hospital, New Delhi; Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute & Research, New Delhi; Wockhardt Hospital, Mumbai; Medica Synergy, Kolkata; LH Hiranandani, Mumbai; TNMC & BYL Nair, Mumbai; Sri Ramachandra Medical Centre, Chennai other dignitaries from various bodies mainly Ministry of Health, Maharashtra, Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission, UP, ADIC, Kerala, Institute of Pharmaceutical Education & Research, Pharmacy Group, Maharashtra State board of Technical Education, Pune, Association of Pharmaceutical Teachers of India amongst others, discussed various aspects of the pharmacist’s role.
Various approaches, practices and methodologies were shared to bring about an improvement in rational use of medicines, legal limitations and modalities of home delivery, e-medications, steps towards patient safety, the emerging threats and challenges of alcoholism, NDPS and Substance abuse in India and other roles of pharmacist in management of data and analysis. The conference also had paper and poster presentation sessions which enabled the participants to showcase various initiatives undertaken by them.
The following topics were discussed at ‘ABMH Pharma-Con 2013’. They were rational use of medicines; legal limitations and modalities of home delivery and e-medications; pharmacovigilance programme of India – steps towards patient safety; role of pharmacist in healthcare industry; pros and cons of non-pharmacists managing pharmacy and pharmacist managing pharmacy; tools to improve patient care-prescription audit and medication audit; inventory management – strategies to maintain optimum stock level; adverse drug reaction (reporting and analysis) and therapeutic drug monitoring (ADR& TDM); medication management and usage; brand selection, hospital formulary limitations, flexibility, roll of pharmacy and therapeutic committee; central store supply and virtual store supply management; the emerging threats and challenges of alcoholism, NDPS and substance abuse in India; role of pharmacist in data management and analysis; how to conduct clinical research and clinical trials ethical vs. practical scenario; patient information on food drug interaction – dietician and pharmacist’s role.
“The event was a success and also organised as a first of its kind in Pune. It is a very good platform for all of us from the healthcare sector to review the role of pharmacists and identify their core responsibilities to make them effectively contribute into the quality delivery of healthcare. This sort of event also provides healthcare professionals proactive measures to improve the patient care and safety. We plan to come up with this sort of similar initiatives to address the issues of patient medication and its efficacy to improve the overall quality of healthcare delivery in India,” said Rekha Dubey, Chief Operating Officer, Aditya Birla Memorial Hospital.
EP News Bureau – Mumbai