As our world seeks a full understanding of SARS-CoV-2, the diseases it causes and the associated comorbidities, healthcare professionals continue to deliver services, often adapting traditional practices to provide optimal care. Through the pandemic, FIP, too, is continuing to deliver on its mission to support global health through the advancement of pharmacy by providing a platform for collaboration across borders and uniting the profession.
As part of that mission, FIP Virtual 2020 took place over three weeks in September, showcasing pharmacy’s work in COVID-19, and launching a number of new programmes, such as the FIP Global Development Goals, that will allow the federation to move forward with its “One FIP” strategy. This issue of the IPJ contains reports from FIP Virtual as well as from FIP’s 7th Pharmaceutical Sciences World Congress, where scientists from across the globe discussed the latest developments, including around COVID.
Don’t miss:
• The acceleration of “virtual” practice
• How can pharmacists transform their practice around the air pollution agenda?
• Interview with 2020 André Bédat awardee Martin Schulz
• Celebrating 50 years of the Board of Pharmaceutical Sciences
• The world cannot afford low vaccine uptake so pharmacy must increase it
• Good leadership in challenging times
• Be an agent of change for women in science and education
• How Jordan and Indonesia collaborated with FIP to advance pharmacy practice
• COVID-19 has changed the future of drug development
• Issues to consider for herd immunity — COVID-19
• Advancing cancer therapies through mathematics and trial design
• Genomics: The next leap forward in clinical care
• Challenges for cell and gene therapy manufacturing
• Harnessing the therapeutic potential of gut microbes
• New use for old diabetes medicine could improve outcomes in hepatitis B
• Novel diagnostic technology to monitor health conditions via the skin developed
• Overcoming global health challenges with innovative drug delivery approaches
• How access to medicines can be widened by more efficient production
And news includes:
• Transformation of profession to be guided by new goals
• Growing concern over the future of medicines supplies worldwide reflected in new FIP policy statement
• Survey points to shortages caused by COVID
• FIP makes policy statement to address global emergency of patient safety
• Calls for focus on remuneration and sustainability
• Fight against antimicrobial resistance to be advanced by new FIP commission
• New vision laid out to take community pharmacy to 2025
• FIP presents how healthcare challenges in sub-Saharan Africa can be addressed through pharmacy education reform
• Canadian pharmacists want naloxone kits in opioid users’ homes
• Largest screening study for diabetes risk by pharmacists launched
• FIP award winners for 2020
All this is available now!
FIP members can access the interactive journal and pdf here.
FIP and PGEU today signed a memorandum of understanding to work in partnership to strengthen the role of community pharmacists. In particular, the two organisations have committed to work together on methodology and typology of community pharmacy services in order to improve communication with the public, to ensure that data collection and presentation on this subject at global level is more sound and more comparable, and to ensure that the role of community pharmacy and community pharmacists in delivering primary health care is recognised and acknowledged at all levels.
“PGEU and FIP are key partners in their mission to advance and advocate the sustainable contribution community pharmacists make to individual health, public health and to health systems. We look forward to strengthening our work in partnership on topics of common interest and maximise the benefits of our cooperation for our members,” said PGEU president Duarte Santos
“The signing of this MOU is an important step forward to officially reaffirm our willingness to collaborate more closely with PGEU. It is a great opportunity to use the strengths of our both organisations to support pharmacists in their efforts to consolidate their roles in the different health systems for the benefit of their populations. Let’s work together, in trust, solidarity and action, taking advantage of our synergies, in respect of the obvious role of PGEU and FIP. Together we are stronger,” said FIP President Dominique Jordan.
To take into account developments since our COVID-19 clinical information and treatment guidelines for pharmacists were updated in July, today we’ve published an addendum containing more recent information about vaccines, remdesivir, convalescent plasma, neutralising antibodies and herd immunity.
As countries face the COVID-19 pandemic, strong primary health care is a critical first line of defence and response, providing essential health services to keep communities safe and healthy, FIP said in a statement to the 73rd World Health Assembly that resumed online this week following a de minimis assembly in May.
FIP also pointed out that transformation of the profession is now more important than ever as greater reliance is placed on pharmacists to ensure that people get professional advice as well as treatments, and FIP is supporting this with its Development Goals. Read the full statement here.
A handbook to support pharmacists in preventing, controlling, managing and treating vector-borne diseases is published today by FIP. Some of these diseases, such as malaria and dengue, previously confined to tropical and subtropical areas, are now spreading to new regions due to climate change, increased global travel, migration, global trade, deforestation and unplanned urbanisation, and FIP is encouraging pharmacists to take a more active role in their prevention and management.
“Vector-borne diseases account for nearly one fifth of all infectious diseases and cause over 700,000 deaths every year. In addition to their health burden, their economic impact is enormous, especially so because they disproportionally affect the world’s poorest countries, particularly in Africa, the Americas and South-East Asia,” said FIP president Dominique Jordan.
The new publication, “Vector-borne diseases: A handbook for pharmacists”, produced in collaboration with the Pharmaceutical Forum of the Americas, provides an overview of vector-borne diseases and the actions that pharmacists can take. It discusses:
“Combating vector-borne diseases is fundamental for achieving many of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Most of these diseases are preventable and pharmacists are ideally placed to support communities and patients in protecting themselves. We hope this handbook will be of great value to pharmacists all around the world,” Mr Jordan said.
The FIP Foundation for Education and Research is supporting a campaign run by the Lebanese Order of Pharmacists to fund the rebuilding of pharmacies destroyed during the explosion in Beirut in August. Click here for information on how to make a donation.
Needs in the European Region in order for pharmacy to deliver breakthroughs for better primary health care are described in a new report released by FIP today.
The report summarises the key messages from a conference for the European Region, held by FIP in collaboration the Turkish Pharmacists’ Association in 2019, which facilitated mapping and prioritisation of pharmaceutical practice, service, education and workforce development needs in the context of primary health care. At that conference, pharmacy leaders and pharmacists representing 37 countries in the region committed to deliver better primary health care through pharmacy, and the report presents findings of a survey of FIP member organisations conducted between June and September 2020 to evaluate national pharmacy priorities and strategies towards the implementation of that commitment (n=16).
“With this report, we have assessed the status quo and suggest next steps in to take the primary health care agenda forward. This will support pharmacy leaders in Europe and beyond as a roadmap for action to transform primary health care,” said FIP CEO Dr Catherine Duggan.
Access the report here.
The most pressing healthcare, health workforce and pharmaceutical education needs in sub-Saharan Africa are described in a report published today by FIP, alongside recommendations towards achieving universal health coverage. The new report, “FIP pharmacy education in sub-Saharan Africa”, documents the outcomes of the FIP-UNESCO UNITWIN Global Pharmacy Education Development Network, launched in 2010 to advance research, training and curriculum development in pharmacy education by building university networks and encouraging inter-university cooperation worldwide.
One-third of the African population does not have access to quality medicines and pharmaceutical services, with one major contributing factor being the critical shortage of pharmacists. Improvement in the quality of education and training is one of the key elements for the sustainable development of the pharmaceutical workforce to improve health and well-being, with the ultimate aim of achieving universal health coverage, according to FIP-UNESCO UNITWIN director Professor Ralph Altiere.
As its title suggests, the report provides an overview of pharmacy education in sub-Saharan Africa, including national profiles of pharmacy education, educational trends and best practices. “The FIP-UNESCO UNITWIN Centre for Excellence in Africa has been an incubator for education reform. This report provides pharmacy stakeholders across Africa with evidence on the current status, needs and priorities of pharmacy education in sub-Saharan Africa, sharing our experience of investing in and transforming pharmacy education. We invite students, faculty members, national pharmacy organisations and governments to use this report as a roadmap to advance pharmacy education and the pharmaceutical workforce across Africa and throughout the world,” Prof. Altiere said.
A wider role for community pharmacists in reducing the negative impacts of air pollution on health is advocated in a new report published by FIP today. “According to the World Health Organization, air pollution is the greatest environmental risk to health, with nine out of 10 people breathing polluted air every day. There is, therefore, a clear need for pharmacists not only to respond to and manage respiratory illnesses and symptoms, but also to support proactive respiratory wellness,” said Gonçalo Sousa Pinto, FIP lead for practice development and transformation and co-author of the report.
The report, “Mitigating the impact of air pollution on health: The role of community pharmacists”, presents the findings of an international survey on the awareness and roles of community pharmacists related to air pollution and respiratory health. Responses were received from 62 countries and territories. Among the findings are that, currently, pharmacists’ most commonly reported roles in respiratory care include supporting the use of non-prescription medicines (i.e., self care) and promoting adherence to medication (both 84%). However, only 5% of pharmacists generally and proactively discuss and manage the impacts of air pollution on respiratory health. Advice on protection against pollen was cited as the most common preventive counselling. Advice on protection from both indoor and outdoor pollutants is provided by pharmacists in less than half of the respondent countries and territories, with over one-fifth of pharmacists not yet providing any type of advice in this area.
Nevertheless, 92% of respondents said that pharmacists want to evolve their role as trusted advisors and provide value in the area of respiratory care and air pollution. The survey also defined a number of barriers that must be overcome if the profession is to be able to practise to its full potential in this area, lack of training being the first.
In 2019, the World Health Organization listed air pollution and climate change as one of the top 10 threats to global health. “There is an urgent need to address the direct threat that air pollution poses to the health of individuals and communities. The intelligence from this survey may inform policymaking, advocacy efforts and new service development by pharmacist organisations around the world,” Mr Sousa Pinto said.