CENTER FOR PUBLIC HEALTH PHARMACY

(CPHelP)

Background:

The last few decades have witnessed pharmacists’ role evolving beyond the traditional product-oriented functions, such as medicine dispensing and distributing. Pharmacists’ services currently comprise patient-oriented, administrative, and public health roles. Several public health functions can be benefited from pharmacists’ unique expertise, including pharmacotherapy, patient care, and preventive medicine. Besides dispensing medicine, they can provide health and medication information. The pharmacists’ accessibility to the community and their medication expertise give them a greater edge to public health care. Integrating public health practice into pharmacy practice training and pharmaceutical care is a need of time.

Public health pharmacy or pharmaceutical public health is a vibrant and emerging professional field in global health; however, it is a relatively newer concept in this part of the world. Currently, the vast workforce of pharmacists is underutilized or has no direction towards public health.  This is because there is a huge gap between academia and public health pharmacy practice. The current pharmacy practice curriculum is mainly oriented towards the conventional needs of hospital-based healthcare. For example, highly effective hospital antimicrobial stewardship programs have a strong engagement of pharmacists, either as a leader or co-leader of the program. Therefore, it is essential to train and make more professionally competent public health pharmacists engage in outpatient settings. The encouragement of such interdisciplinary education and training will also maximize resources and aid in addressing the workforce needs within the fields of pharmacy and public health. Especially during the ongoing pandemic, the demand for such centers has grown beyond high ever before.  Therefore, we propose a Centre for Public Health Pharmacy (CPHelP), the first of its kind in India, and can successfully provide pharmacist-based intervention in outpatient settings.

Impact and targeted beneficiaries

The CPHelP based intervention in multidimensional levels (prescriber, pharmacist, and patient) in outpatient settings ensures appropriate behavior changes in medication prescribing and dispensing practices, leading to more responsible drug uses at the community level. The centre helps to optimize medication use in the community, especially in primary care settings and also improve dispensing practice by pharmacists, thereby ensuring quality and safe use of medications in our society.  The centre can deliver pharmaceutical care to the neediest sectors of society and critically ill patients, via home medication review. Besides, CPHelP can provide hands-on training to undergraduate, and postgraduate students on social and preventive pharmacy. In addition, the center serves for capacity building among the students to take up public health responsibilities. The centre can also involve in cutting-edge research which has direct implications for our society.

Aim:

Establish a centre to provide an interdisciplinary platform for capacity building in public health pharmacy practice, service, and research to promote the quality use of medicine in our society.

Objectives:

1. To impart knowledge to society on quality and safe use of medicines and involve in implementing community-centered care as part of the social commitment of the MAHE.
2. To develop leadership skills among the students to engage in community outreach programs and be a public health pharmacy champion.
3. To foster the research culture on evidence-based pharmacy with a perception of public and global health concepts.
4. To generate scientific knowledge on ever-changing best pharmacy practice decisions and apply these for societal benefits through an interdisciplinary approach.
5. To network with national and international agencies for integrated strategies to tackle public and global health issues on medication use.

Deliverables:

Short term:

1. Conduct community outreach programs in collaboration with similar interest groups
2. Develop health educational materials for public and publish newsletters
3. Conduct workshop, training programs, conferences in the area of Public Health Pharmacy
4. Start certificate course in Public Health Pharmacy
5. Establish collaboration and network with national/ international agencies
6. Joint research grant writing with collaborators
7. Publish papers and books in local languages in the area of Pharmaceutical Public Health in reputed journals/ books

Long term:

1. Establish the centre as centre of excellence in regional, national and global levels

2. Work with regulatory agencies to develop and implement pharmaceutical public health policies

Coordinator:

Dr. Sonal Sekhar M, Assistant Professor (Selection Grade), Department of Pharmacy Practice, MCOPS

Co-Coordinator:

1. Dr. Sreedharan, Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacy Practice, MCOPS

2. Dr. Girish Thunga, Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacy Practice, MCOPS