2MN 2 U

With the integration of ICT into its daily operations, Putrajaya Hospital provides quicker and hassle free services with the ease of a click of the mouse or a text message.

At first glance Putrajaya Hospital seems no different from any other government medical facility but the feeling quickly disappears from the very moment patients arrive at the registration counter.

From then on one cannot help but be awed at the services available, at the model hospital that is helping integrate ICT into its daily operations, and in the process of not only making its operations easier, but also providing patients with quicker and hassle free services.

According to Putrajaya Hospital Director Dr Nora’i Mohd Said, the use of ICT in the hospital’s daily operations began immediately after it opened in the year 2000 with the implementation of the Total Hospital Information System (THIS). With THIS, the hospital has been gradually increasing the number of services managed with just a “click of the mouse.”

The system allows staff anywhere in the hospital to access and manage all aspects of patient records and critical care information, manage patient queues at various sections of the hospital as well as monitor medical supplies, beds, operation theatres, the pharmacy, picture archiving (for services like X-rays) and services like radiology, haemodialysis and pharmacy.

 

Push button convenience: Dr Nora’i showing the SMS Take and Go pharmacy process on a leaflet.

Pharmacists are some of today's most important workers. With the new strains of disease which spring up constantly along with some methods which are not as effective as they should be, it is important for these producers of medicine know how to effectively produce correct batches of medicine. Indeed, their job can go beyond simply producing effective medicine, for some pharmacists are responsible for inventing new forms of treatment. To do this, a pharmacist needs not only a large and effective working knowledge of all the compounds which can be combined to make a medicinal treatment, but a thorough knowledge of the workings of the human body.

           The history of pharmacy is long and diverse, probably being first born out of the knowledge of using certain plants for their healing properties. Usually, in ancient cultures, one person in the community knew how to best apply these plants to treatments. As time progressed, these healers began writing down the treatments, recipes, and knowledge of these medicines in order to pass them down to future healers better. One could say that this was the very beginning of pharmacy schools. Today, pharmacy schools have a much higher standard of learning than simply knowing which combination of plants or herbs can produce healing. Much attention is applied to anatomy and physiology as well as the study of medicine, for pharmaceuticals is the link between the two.

           The basic requirement to be licensed as a pharmacist requires either an undergraduate or postgraduate degree from an accredited university. In the United States, this translates into either four years at an accredited college of pharmacy after already completing two years of pharmacy pre-requisites or moving straight into a six-year program for pharmacy straight out of high school. This is not always the case, however, for many students choose to not move into a pharmacy school until after already achieving an under-graduate degree, usually in Pre-Med. This means that the basic minimum to become a Doctor of Pharmacy, the necessary degree to be licensed in the United States, student will need to complete a minimum of six years of schooling, although it will more typically be eight years before completion.

Getting into a pharmacy school is the first requirement, though. If accepted directly into high school into a six-year pharmacy program, a student will be able to begin their training immediately. In addition with taking many of the classes, which would be pharmacy pre-requisites for the other students, these students will focus hard on their pharmacy and will hopefully graduate in six years with a Doctorate of Pharmacy under their belt. Disregarding this, though, most pharmacy schools require at least two years of pre-requisite classes before allowing a student to apply to the college of pharmacy. 

           Many students, however, will actually wait and attended all four years to achieve a Bachelor of Science degree because even attempting to apply to one of the more prestigious pharmacy schools. These prestigious schools generally have a very high standard for their admissions and having an undergraduate degree will greatly help a prospective student's chances of admission. Most colleges of pharmacies will administer the Pharmacy College Admission Test as part of their application process. Students not scoring well enough of this entrance exam will not be permitted the chance to attend the school.

            In the school, students will typically attend a four-year program designed to educate them fully in areas of physiology and pathophysiology, chemistry, pharmacology, toxicology, and many others. Student’s work to attain a proficiency in these areas and, once complete, will begin to assess different ways in which they can apply this knowledge to the therapeutic treatment of patients. This leads into the application of this knowledge with practical experience. Under supervision, the students will generally spend around an entire year using the practical application of all they have learned, working to ensure that they know how to perform in the field.

            Many countries, upon graduation with a pharmacy degree, will require graduates to work under supervision with a licensed pharmacist for a certain amount of time before allowing them to begin practice on their own. Some countries will even administer their own written and oral exams upon completion of a degree to ensure that the graduating pharmacists will live up to the standards of the country. Much like the bar exam for lawyers, this is designed to test the students under pressure and ensure that they are fully ready for the pressure of the job before being allowed to perform it.

             Getting a degree from a pharmacy school certainly requires a great deal of hard work and patience. However, it can also be one of the most rewarding professions available, giving people the chance to help alleviate the suffering of others through medicine. It takes a quick mind and a patient manner to become a pharmacist, but they are some of the most trusted members of society.

Pharmacy (from the Greek φάρμακον 'pharmakon' = drug) is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences, and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of medication.

The scope of pharmacy practice includes more traditional roles such as compounding and dispensing medications, and it also includes more modern services related to patient care, including clinical services, reviewing medications for safety and efficacy, and providing drug information. Pharmacists, therefore, are the experts on drug therapy and are the primary health professionals who optimize medication use to provide patients with positive health outcomes. Pharmacy is also the term for an establishment where pharmacy (in the first sense) is practice (synonym: drugstore). The first pharmacy in Europe (still working) was opened in 1241 in Trier, Germany.

The word pharmacy is derived from its root word pharma which was a term used since the 1400–1600s. In addition to pharma responsibilities, the pharma offered general medical advice and a range of services that are now performed solely by other specialist practitioners, such as surgery and midwifery. The pharma (as it was referred to) often operated through a retail shop which, in addition to ingredients for medicines, sold tobacco and patent medicines. The pharmas also used many other herbs not listed.

In its investigation of herbal and chemical ingredients, the work of the pharma may be regarded as a precursor of the modern sciences of chemistry and pharmacology, prior to the formulation of the scientific method.

Source: Wikipedia

Purchasing through the internet is perceived as one of the ways to get similar items for a cheaper price and drugs are no exception. With the pending economic slowdown, possibly more people will go online to purchase their medicines. All too often one would come across an abundance of sites offering medicines promising that their prices are the best.

While there are genuine internet pharmacy, consumers will find it very difficult to discern a genuine online pharmacy business from a less scrupulous operation.

On top of that even for genuine internet pharmacy, the very nature of the internet could make promoting true quality use of medicines difficult. For example how does internet pharmacy really get the whole picture of the patient’s health, how would they know about any potential interactions with other medicines the patient is taking? There could well be some reluctance on the part of the consumer to share important health information with an internet pharmacy that they don’t know very well, there might be some aspects of their health they would be reluctant to divulge in that setting.’

Another issue is about the patient getting the information required to properly use the medications. There could of course be written instructions on the internet but you still have to interpret it, and that requires face to face interview or at least direct communication with a patient or carer. There is thus missing an opportunity for meaningful monitoring of the patient by the pharmacist, their medication use and how their condition is responding to that, which is an important additional preventive service that pharmacists usually provide.

The best way to dispense and receive medicines, and deal with patients’ individual issues, and this is advocated in developed pharmacy services overseas, is through face to face contact.

Adapted from Australian Pharmacist Oct 2008

Source: Malaysia Pharmaceutical Society (Monthly report, Vol.6, Issue 9)