FIP Congress
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Our extended coverage of the recent FIP
Congress is published in a 36-page supplement. Graeme Smith (on the staff
of The Journal) encourages readers to obtain a copy
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Ask for your FIP congress supplement
How to request a copy
Write to:
Emma Kerby-Evans
The Pharmaceutical Journal
1 Lambeth High Street
London SE1 7JN
Tel: 020 7572 2414
Fax: 020 7572 2504
E-mail: emma.kerby-evans@pharmj.org.uk |
Supplement cover image by Jos Lammers Studio,
The Netherlands
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For a second year, The Pharmaceutical Journal has collated its reports
from the World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in a
supplement (pictured right). The supplement contains coverage of the
proceedings of the 66th congress of the International Pharmaceutical
Federation, which took place in Salvador, Brazil, from 25 to 31 August.
Like last year, the FIP secretariat will be distributing copies from
its headquarters in The Netherlands to FIP members and to all those who
attended the congress. Readers who did not attend the congress but who
are interested in reading about what went on there are encouraged to
request their own personal copy of the supplement (see Panel).
What went on?
The supplement begins with a report of the address of Jean Parrot,
outgoing president of FIP. He told the congress that practice in any
country
could sooner or later influence practice in any other country. Therefore
elements of pharmacy practice in various countries
of the world are featured throughout the
supplement.
The theme running through the congress this year was “Innovation”,
and the supplement contains reports on the four practice symposia, which
examined innovations in
patient treatment, in health care delivery, in patient safety and in
learning and education. The background to the symposia was the idea that
public demand for innovation places a considerable burden on health care
providers; possible solutions that are being developed were discussed.
Royal Pharmaceutical Society representatives made presentations. Ann
Lewis, the Society’s Secretary and Registrar, told a packed session
why a first degree is not enough for life, and David Pruce, director
of practice and quality improvement, outlined pharmacy’s important
role in public health. Alongside Mr Pruce, pharmacists from France, Thailand
and Canada described important public health initiatives that had taken
place in their countries.
Change in pharmacy practice is ever constant and, in a session devoted
to just that, congress participants were told that schools of pharmacy
must train “revolutionaries” if the pharmacy profession wants
to change. New ways of preparing pharmacy undergraduates for practice,
through the use of “virtual patients”, were outlined to the
congress by pharmacy academics from Australia.
Concordance, too, is always a prime concern of practising pharmacists
and how concordance is promoted and taught in various countries is reported.
Of particular interest is a description of patient counselling events,
organised by the International Pharmaceutical Students Association, that
took place in Singapore, Finland, The Netherlands, Romania and Taiwan.
The pharmaceutical sciences are not forgotten and the supplement contains
a report of a highly informative session on how biotechnological medicines
are delivered and used. How biosimilars (biogeneric copies of recombinant
protein drug products) will affect practice is also covered. So, too,
is a session on the current and potential applications of nanotechnology
in drug delivery systems.
Natural products, their current importance and clinical developments
in the field also feature in the supplement.
Next year’s congress will take place in Beijing, China, and the
2008 congress is scheduled to take place in Basel, Switzerland. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal