Dear Colleagues,
I would like to wish each of you a Happy New Year as we enter 2023! For many in the countries of our featured region in this edition of the newsletter, I would also like to wish you a Happy Lunar New Year as we enter the Year of the Rabbit (or Year of the Cat if you’re Vietnamese). Regardless of which new year you celebrate (or even if you celebrate both!) this time of year represents the opportunity to start anew. FIP and the hospital pharmacy section are in the midst of planning for educational sessions at the Brisbane Congress that you will learn more about in the coming months.
In this issue you will read about a highly automated hospital pharmacy in South Korea, exemplifying work of several of the FIP Development Goals as well as the hospital pharmacy specific Basel Statements. Pharmacists there are leveraging technology and automation to allow their pharmacists to focus on clinical tasks to benefit their patients, such as patient-centered medication reconciliation in their hospital’s admission center.
Another story from the Philippines highlights some of the activities of pharmacists across the 7,000+ islands of the country on World Pharmacist Day. Like our colleagues in Korea, the Philippine Society of Hospital Pharmacists is working to advance pharmacy practice to improve patient outcomes in the areas of oncology, mental health, and HIV care.
Meanwhile, further north, the Taiwan Society of Health-System Pharmacists (TSHP) and the Taiwan Pharmaceutical Association (TPA) held their first in-person joint conference since the Covid-19 pandemic. TSHP also conducted their annual Basel Statements video contest for pharmacists to highlight how they are implementing the Basel Statements in their practice settings. I encourage you all to take a few minutes to watch the winning videos.
The Executive Committee of the Hospital Pharmacy Section has been busy working on a process to update and refresh the Basel Statements. This will be the second revision of the Basel Statements since they were first drafted in 2009. The team is being led by Rob Moss (HPS Immediate Past President, Netherlands), Jonathan Penm (HPS Secretary, Australia), and Stephen Eckel (Associate Dean and Associate Professor, University of North Carolina, USA). The goal is to have revisions of the Basel Statements ready for the Brisbane Congress. Look for more updates throughout the year as work proceeds.
I know that I am energized and excited about the great work that members of the FIP Hospital Pharmacy Section are doing. The executive committee has a lot of work planned for 2023 to help advance pharmacy practice globally. We hope to expand our outreach and engagement with you to bring those plans to life. And, of course, we could not do this work without the generous support of our HPS sponsors, listed at the end of the newsletter.
Kind Regards,
Ryan Forrey
President, Hospital Pharmacy Section
Transformation of Hospital Pharmacist Role in Korea
With COVID-19, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and the development of cell gene therapy, hospital pharmacists are facing a new era in which they are required to assume new roles. In addition to key duties such as dispensing medicines and providing medication counselling, hospital pharmacists in Korea are making a great effort to perform various extra duties, such as big data analysis and management of biomedicine. We are trying to create a system that can increase the number of human resources and automate dispensing and distribution of medication. In particular, many cutting-edge technologies are being introduced to automate dispensing of medicines and increase efficiency.
In 2021, we started a robotized compounding and delivery for injectable anticancer medications and completed the largest single scale sterile preparation facility in Korea. The aseptic preparation facilities consist of two independent zones for anticancer drugs and parenteral nutrition and refer to USP general Chapter 797 and 800. There are two APOTECAchemo and three Class Ⅱ Type B2 biosafety cabinets (BSC) in the anticancer drug compounding room. The room is designed to prevent cross-infection through an interlock door system as well as to maintain negative pressure to protect pharmacists. The parenteral nutrition compounding room is positive pressure and contains one Exacta-Mix 2400 Compounder and two Class Ⅱ Type A2 BSC. The antineoplastic agents are delivered to the injection room by CLOi, an autonomous mobile robot (AMR) made by LG. We found the AMR extremely useful for drug delivery, and we introduced one more this year.
Pharmacy automation allows pharmacists to perform more clinical tasks. In June 2022, we opened the admission information center where we started checking the medications that patients bring in when they are admitted to the hospital. The conventional pill identification model was passive and patients may not adhere to their treatment plan. However the admission information center allows pharmacists to assume a more active role and to collaborate with patients. We were able to confirm that these activities of medication reconciliation by pharmacists contribute to patient safety and medical staff satisfaction. As such, pharmacists can perform patient-centered medication reconciliation in the admission information center. This will be a new model for medication reconciliation on admission in Korea.
Hospital Admission Information Center Opening and Outpatient Pharmacy Expansion ceremony. Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital YouTube
Pharmacists also participated in the hospital’s YouTube filming and kept records of these activities. We would like to share it with many pharmacists around the world through social media.
Korean Pharmacist vlog
Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital YouTube
Eunjung Hwang
Director of Pharmacy, Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital
Hospital Pharmacists as One on World Pharmacists Day 2022!
The FIP theme for this year, “Pharmacy United in Action for a Healthier World,” aims to showcase pharmacy’s positive impact on health worldwide and further strengthen solidarity among the profession.
In celebrating World Pharmacists Day 2022, hospital pharmacists all over the 7,107 islands of the Philippines celebrated together through a virtual commencement activity and a weeklong social media campaign featuring engaging discussions and starting meaningful dialogue. Colleagues from different parts of the country gathered together online for the 3rd Quarter Symposium of the Philippine Society of Hospital Pharmacists, all while proudly wearing our themed shirts, exuding an atmosphere of nearness despite the distance.
In the hopes of inspiring the next generation, we gave platforms for hospital pharmacists in specific patient populations to share their stories in HIV Patient Care, Mental Health Care, and Oncology Pharmacy. In HIV Patient Care, we highlighted the impact of pharmacists’ interventions in caring for people living with HIV. The roles of pharmacists in HIV and primary care management, recommending appropriate treatment and interpreting laboratory results and other tests which are a must to improve and ensure better HIV care nationwide and foster healthier future generations.
With the mental health crisis brought on by the pandemic, we sought to feature the emerging role of pharmacists in mental health care. Now, more than ever, mental health wellness has become a priority, and pharmacists are now becoming better equipped and knowledgeable in CNS medications, dispensing requirements, and possible side effects.
As Oncology pharmacy services are increasingly practiced in hospitals nationwide, we dedicated a lecture highlighting the efficacy of cancer medications, patient safety in cancer chemotherapy, and management and prevention of common medication errors in oncology.
Finally, we concluded our celebration with a photojournalism contest among partner hospitals. Everyone was excited to showcase their appreciation and innovation of their profession through art. The Philippine General Hospital won the grand prize for their very inspiring entry in “PGH: People Giving Hope,” a story of how a profession– where accuracy and meticulousness are essential in minimizing critical medication errors, fares within a high-risk, fast-moving Emergency Room where every second counts. And in honor of hospital pharmacists nationwide and our mission to elevate the pharmacy practice, PSHP has opened the PSHP-SLCo Foundation Scholarship Program that aims to advance hospital pharmacists’ practice to new heights.
Ms. Sheryll Ann Q. Limson – Vice-President
Ms. Christina Liza R. Sta. Maria – President
The Philippine Society of Hospital Pharmacists
New Horizons for Pharmacy
The 2022 5th Taiwan Joint Conference of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences resumed its physical meeting at the NTUH International Conference Center on October 29-30, 2022. It was jointly organized by Taiwan Society of Health-System Pharmacists (TSHP) in cooperation with the Taiwan Pharmaceutical Association (TPA), and 12 other associations. The theme of this conference is “New Horizons for Pharmacy”.
A total of nearly 1,300 people from various pharmaceutical areas attended the conference and published more than 1,000 papers. For the keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the conference, the former president/academician of the Academia Sinica, Dr. Chi-Huey Wong, was invited to introduce the development of precision health and vaccines. In addition, the second day of the conference invited the former president of Taipei United Hospital, Dr. Shengjian Huang, to lead everyone to reflect on pharmaceutical professional development in light of the needs of society, considering human-centered aging, epidemic and integration.
The Vice President of FIP Hospital Pharmacy Section Western Pacific Region, Mrs. Mary Wang, was awarded with Outstanding Contribution Award by TSHP for her great achievement in promoting the professional development and the international collaboration in pharmacy.
SHPA Setting the Agenda as Blockbuster Conference Returns
After a three year hiatus, Australia’s largest scientific pharmacy conference made a stunning return in Brisbane in early December, with Medicines Management 2022, the 46th National Conference of the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA) attracting 1,100 delegates who enjoyed inspiring keynote speakers and unparalleled networking and celebrations over three days. Professor Michael Dooley received the 2022 Fred J Boyd Award, SHPA’s most prestigious accolade.
Professor Michael Dooley
New SHPA President Tom Simpson said the best days of the Society lie ahead.
‘The boundaries of our profession are shifting.
‘By building broader understanding of complex clinical journeys – and formally recognising the underpinning skills and experience – we can work toward a future in which we are defined by what we can do, and the care we can provide, rather than where we work.’
SHPA President Tom Simpson
Looking further afield, SHPA’s annual thought leadership report Pharmacy Forecast Australia built momentum in its second year, expanding to 43 recommendations on the future of Hospital Pharmacy and featuring new themes around wellbeing, funding and sustainability as the country emerges from the worst stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic.
SHPA continues to call for the commissioning of a national workforce strategy to anticipate and fund the training and development of specialist pharmacists, and plan for the future Hospital Pharmacy roles Australia needs. Informing the advocacy for a ten-year National Pharmacy Workforce Plan will be a comprehensive, nationwide workforce survey, the first of its kind in over a decade.
Taiwan: 2022 Basel Statement Micro Film Contest Winners
To promote the concept of Basel Statements, since 2018, Taiwan’s pharmacy associations have consecutively held the annual “Applied Pharmaceutical Practice of Basel Statement” Micro Film Contest. This year, 12 hospital pharmacies from different cities of Taiwan joined the contest to compete for a total of 3,000USD awards. Six professional judges select the winners based on the creativity, art performance and storyline.
The winners of 2022 Basel Statement Micro Film Contest are:
1st Prize: E-DA Hospital – Stay True to Yourself
2nd Prize: KinMen Hospital – We Care, We Check
3rd Prize: Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital- The Century of Covid-19 Pandemic
Congratulations to the winners!
Basel Statement Update in Brisbane – Request for Input
The Basel Statements were created in 2008 and revised in 2016 and reflect the vision of Hospital Pharmacy practice. The Basel Statements are used to improve Hospital Pharmacy practice around the world using the Basel Statement Assessment tool.
The Hospital Pharmacy section has started a project to update the Basel Statements.
It is for this project that we would like to reach out to you.
The aim of the project is to have a set of Basel Statements that remain relevant to hospital pharmacists in all WHO regions. The scope is not to revise a great part of the Statement set, but the project specifically will look at statements that might need clarification and/or slight modifications. In addition, the project is designed to identify potential gaps that might not be part of the current set of Statements.
The first phase of the project is to map the current Basel Statements to FIP documents (e.g., the FIP Development Goals). In addition, we will be mapping the Basel Statements to Hospital Pharmacy Association statements/standards on Hospital Pharmacy Practice. We have retrieved published standards from member organisations of FIP and other interested parties with which the HPS has had interactions.
Our request to you is whether you know of Hospital Pharmacy standards published by non-FIP member organisations that might be relevant to this project? If so, please could you mail the name of the organisation and preferably a link to the published standards to baselstatements@fip-hps.org. With your help we hope to create a truly global mapping.
The project is coordinated by a project team consisting of Stephen Eckel, Jonathan Penm, Régis Vaillancourt, Rebekah Moles, Racha Dabliz, Mike Stepanovic and Rob Moss. The team is planning to finalise this project during sessions to be organised coinciding with the FIP Congress to be held in Brisbane at the end of September.
We will keep you posted on the progress regularly.
Rob Moss, Immediate Past President FIP Hospital Pharmacy Section
FIP Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs) Handbook for Pharmacists
The final version of the FIP cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) handbook for pharmacists, and its companion guide on knowledge and skills for CVD-related roles by pharmacists, were launched October 26th at a dedicated digital event. This is the last of five sets of publications to support the role of pharmacists in NCD prevention and management.
The aim of this handbook is to identify and describe key evidence-based interventions by pharmacists in this area with the dual aim of supporting their implementation in pharmacy practice, and of supporting advocacy efforts by FIP member organisations towards the optimisation and/or expansion of pharmacists’ scope of practice in CVDs and NCDs in general.
The companion guide describes the knowledge and skills required by pharmacists to offer these interventions and services, so that individual practitioners can map their own competencies against these guidelines, and that the appropriate workforce development strategies and education programmes can be developed to support these developments in the profession.
