Muscat, Deliberations of the 10th Pharmaceutical Care Conference was inaugurated today at the Oman Exhibition & Conferences Center under the patronage of Sheikh Al Fadhl Mohammed Al Harthy, Secretary General of the Council of Ministers.
The opening ceremony was also attended by Dr. Ahmed Mohammed Al Saidi, Minister of Health, Undersecretaries of the Ministry and some senior officials.
The conference, held under the theme “Professional Excellence in Pharmacy Practice’’, is organized by the Ministry of Health (MOH) represented by the Directorate General of Medical Supplies, and witnessed a wide range of local, regional, and international participation.
The inauguration ceremony included DGMS welcome speech delivered by Ph. Nussaiba Habib Mohammed, Director General where she affirmed that such pharmaceutical forums seeks to upgrade the pharmacy profession and aspiring for more innovations and progress in the area; bearing in mind the right of accessing to quality health care for patient.
The Director General of Medical Supplies shed light on the significant role of pharmacist during the pandemic side by side with various health cadres as the profession has experienced unprecedented challenges represented in shortage in medicine, personal protective tool, and laboratories investigations.
She pointed out that pharmacist has made tremendous efforts to overcome such challenges by ensuring the availability of medicines, finding suitable alternatives and developing strategies to avoid shortage of necessary medicines and medical supplies, as well as to continue dispensing prescriptions to all patients along with developing safer ways to communicate with patients and provide drug consultations.
Moreover, Ph. Nussaiba outlined in her speech areas of focus that the conference will address over the three days.
The Conference Keynote was then delivered by Prof. Ahmed Al Jedai, Assistant Deputy Minister of MOH Medical Support Services, KSA. Prof. Al Jedai speech focused on the expended role of pharmacist over the years as now is playing essential part in the direct patient care. He highlighted the need for changing the pharmacy academic education to meet the new requirements of the profession and thus strengthening the health systems.
Prof. Al Jedai elaborated on the necessity of expanding the role of pharmacist in the health care system through shifting to patient centered practice to contribute in disease prevention and reducing the total cost of care and illness management.
Moreover, the opening included the inauguration of implementation of Barcode System on Medical Supplies. The system is widely used in health care services as it receives and stores a lot of information to enhance patient safety, increase the accuracy of receiving and dispensing, and reduce human errors. The Barcode System additionally facilitates inventories control and reduce their cost of printing and using. Moreover, each package contains a special serial number that enables service providers to track and trace medical supplies and detect counterfeit medicines.
During the ceremony, Sheikh Al Fadhl also launched Shifa, a new mobile application for personal health file.
At the end of the ceremony, the chief guest opened the accompanying exhibition of (60) local and international medication manufacturing companies in addition to other local institutions including be’ah, Consumer Protection Authority, Ministry of Heritage and Tourism, and the GCC Pharmacy societies. The exhibition displays the latest products and technologies in the medication industry and provided pharmaceutical information.
It should be noted that the event is one of the most significant specialized conferences held in the region in the field of pharmacy practices. This year’s version receives a wide-ranging international participation involving senior officials from different practice-advanced international organizations.
The distinct participation of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), which regulates the pharmacy practice in the USA, will enrich the conference with the global expertise, practices, and experiences along with the participation of World Health Organization, the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP), Pharmaceutical Care Network Europe (PCNE), Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP Canada), as well as Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, and the pharmaceutical societies of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
As many as 50 Prominent local, regional, and international speakers will be highlighting various professional themes on latest developments in the pharmaceutical practice within (61) working papers that are distributed over (13) scientific sessions.
The three-day program focuses on many topics through various sessions including advances in research reshaping the future of health care, crisis & pandemics management, and addressing topic of changing landscape and innovation in pharmacy practice as well as addressing the ASHP program experiences and lessons learned during COVID-19.
Sessions will outline also evolution of pharmaceutical care in community pharmacy, clinical innovation in patient centered care, in addition to achievements and breakthrough of patient safety in Oman. Therapeutic advances, disease management, and the ASHP program expanding clinical pharmacy services will be highlighted in the event.
Moreover, this year’s edition include a special panel conducted by the MOH’s Directorate General of Planning and Studies on the role of knowledge to policy and practice that emphasizes evidence-informed policymaking.
The conference aims at creating a platform for the education and training of pharmacists to a level of specialization and maintain continuing professional development (CPD), advocating on how pharmacy professional looking to develop the pharmacy workforce within a broader context within health care systems. It additionally seeks to showcase the experience of Oman as a leading country in the region in adopting the Patient Safety Friendly Hospital Initiative, identify transformative change in pharmacy education needed to meet the accelerated societal needs including new competencies required for the 21st century, as well as exploring the future of pharmacotherapy, identify new trends and advances in diseases management.
Furthermore, the tenth edition of the conference outlines the protocol for a scientifically sound research study; appraise strengths and weaknesses with studies found in literature and argue for methods chosen. It aims at advancing policy opportunities to building resilient and responsive health systems.
The conference aspires to achieve a number of objectives that enable community pharmacists to acquire the necessary skills, knowledge, and attitudes to deliver comprehensive pharmaceutical care to ambulatory patients, and develop new and innovative ways to attract young pharmacists into all areas of pharmaceutical practice and science.
Prior to the opening ceremony of the conference, symposium on the latest updates on the WHO 3rd Global Patient Safety Challenge “Medication without Harm” was held. The symposium touched upon pharmacists’ perspective and contribution in patient & medication safety, Ministry of Health response to medication without harm challenge through the “Pharmaceutical Care Initiatives”, and reviewed countries experiences in this regard. It addressed further medication safety in polypharmacy and high risk medications.
Source: Oman News Agency