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Pharmacy: a bridge between science, industry and practice, was
the title of the Harrison Memorial Medal Lecture 2004 given by Bill Dawson,
of
Bionet Ltd. He spoke about the shift in education and training of pharmacists
to fit the changing perceptions and needs of the profession over the
past 50 or so years.
Professor Dawson also described the opportunities for pharmacists in
many areas and how the teaching of them needs to reflect their needs
and their future careers. “A pharmacy qualification gives you the
opportunity to work in industry, research, academia, practice and education.”
In Professor Dawson’s view pharmacy education is at a crossroads
and the profession needs to see the wider picture in education. In the
future the need for integrated science and practice will be driven by
patients’ needs, the new sciences of genetics and genomics, and
the impact of point-of-care diagnostics.
Ian Wong, who delivered the Chemist & Druggist Practice Research
Award Lecture, spoke about improving the health of children and the research
priorities related to children’s medicines.
Dr Wong, who holds a joint post at the School of Pharmacy and Institute
of Child Health, University of London, scotched the myth that the reason
so little research was carried out on the use of medicines in children
is on technical and ethical grounds. The main reason, in Dr Wong’s
opinion, is the lack of suitably trained investigators to carry out such
research.
He then described a number of different studies that are now being undertaken
with children. He highlighted the prescribing of psychotropic drugs as
one area that is now having more attention. He also revealed the poor
evidence base for the prescribing of antidepressants in children and
also the high rates of dosing errors in children in hospital.
The Conference Science Award Lecture was given by Jean-Yves Maillard
of the University of Brighton. The award is given to a researcher under
the age of 35 years.
He spoke about the need to control and eradicate super-bugs and how understanding
the mechanism of action of biocides may be a way to prevent microbial
resistance developing.
Although high concentrations of biocides are effective, they are usually
available in practice at much lower concentrations. Are these lower concentrations
actually promoting the development of resistance, he asked.
Dr Maillard then described the different mechanisms of action of gluataraldehyde
and ortho-phthalaldehyde and how an understanding of these can be exploited
to make them effective biocides at low concentrations without leading
to the development of resistance.
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal