INFO-LINK 51

A Few Words from the President

The dawn of hope and expectation

The year 2009 will be remembered by many

as the year in which the world economy
came perilously close to collapse following
the events of the last half of 2008. Inside this issue:
Nevertheless, this same year has shown the
resilience not just of the stock markets and Words From the President 1
the global economy but also of the human
spirit which has managed to survive all the
rumours, the scares, the fears and the - Welcome
2
anxieties. Thankfully, the signs of economic - Volunteer Opportunities
recovery are beginning to appear and hope
- Pharmacists as Academic
and cautious optimism are beginning to rear
Detailers in Nepal 3-4
their heads, albeit quietly and sometimes
- News from our members
even anonymously.
The Pharmacy Information Section has had a good year including a - Towards Lisbon 2010 - A peek
very successful FIP Congress in Istanbul during which both the pre-congress into upcoming sessions
5-6
satellite symposium on Medicines Information as well as the various - Reports
sessions were very well attended and appreciated. And in the usual hectic - Conferences
but enjoyable time-bound fashion, the Executive Committee worked hard to
meet the 1st October 2009 deadline for proposed programmes for Lisbon Contact Information 7
2010. The Executive Committee is pleased to announce that the following
programmes by the Section (alone or in conjunction with other sections)
have been approved for Lisbon 2010: resources to support medicines
information services; patient packs versus dispensing from bulk - worldwide
experience of individualised packaging of medicines for patients; public
health pharmacy an unveiling paradigm of quintessential pharmaceutical
care practice and therapeutic outcomes; using pharmacy information
technology to improve patient outcomes and safety: update on
developments around the world; and current issues in medicine and
healthcare information. Lisbon promises to be exciting with another pre-
satellite symposium on Medicines Information being planned with
colleagues from Portugal.
2009 has been difficult but exciting. As the year comes to an end, it is
good to reflect on the many times that chaos has seemed inevitable and to
be grateful for the human spirit which has managed to overcome adversity
and anxiety so that it can look forward with hope and optimism.
May the dreams of all members of the Pharmacy Information Section
and of all pharmacists across the world be fulfilled in 2010 and beyond, and
may each and all be blessed at the individual, family, community, and EDITORS
national levels.
Franoise Pradel, PhD
mailto:fpradel@rx.umaryland.edu
Happy New Year!
Patricia J Bush, PhD
Alex Dodoo, President mailto:pjbushwork@comcast.net

INFO-LINK 51, December 2009 1

FIP Young Pharmacists Group Observer

Gloriana Fernandez has been appointed FIP Young Pharmacists

Group (YPG) Observer on the PI Executive Committee. Gloriana
received her Pharm.D. from the University of California, San
Francisco in 2002 and went on to complete a pharmacy practice
residency at Washoe Medical Center in Reno, Nevada. She has
experience in both the hospital and community setting, having
worked for 5 years as a clinical pharmacist at Childrens Hospital
Los Angeles and for 3 years as the lead compounding pharmacist
and lab manager at Fairmont Pharmacy in Pasadena, California.
She is currently living in The Hague, Netherlands and working as a
telepharmacist providing services for hospitals in rural areas in
Oregon and Texas. Her interests include women's health and
complementary and alternative treatment modalities.

International Pharmaceutical Students Federation President

Mohamed Sultan was elected President for the International Pharmaceutical Students
Federation IPSF 2009-10. He was Chairperson of Public Relations for the International
Pharmaceutical Students Federation IPSF 2008-09, Eastern-Mediterranean Regional
Coordinator for the International Pharmaceutical Students Federation IPSF 2007-08,
Chairperson of Public Health in the Egyptian Pharmaceutical Students Federation EPSF 2007-
08, Vice President and Student exchange officer for Alexandria Scientific Pharmaceutical
Students Association (ASPSA) 2007-08, ASPSA Chairperson of Publication Committee 2006-07.
Mohamed received a BSc. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the Faculty of Pharmacy, Alexandria
University in 2009.

Pharmacist volunteer opportunities in Ethiopia and Tanzania

Currently, there are several pharmacist volunteer opportunities available in Ethiopia and Tanzania, organized by the
HIV/AIDS Twinning Center (in Washington, D.C.). For further
information, here are the This is to wish all the hard working
website links: Executive Committee members of the PIS
http://www.twinningagainstaids.org/vhc_ethiopia .html a very happy new year and all the very
http://www.twinningagainstaids.org/vhc_tanzania .html best for the future. Your hard work and
commitment to the cause of pharmacy
Our colleagues in Ethiopia have established a Drug Information will always be remembered.
Alex Dodoo, PI Section President
Center at the teaching university hospital (Black Lion Hospital) in
May, 2009. They are looking for a pharmacist with drug
information center experience to help guide their young drug
information staff. Ideally, 3 months or more of volunteer service is
requested. Given the specialty required, other terms (shorter than
3 months) might be negotiable. For any further information, please
contact: Noreen Teoh (B.S. Pharm, MPH), nteoh@jhu.edu, Project
Coordinator, Howard University - Addis Ababa University Twinning
Partnership (Pharmacy Education) or Ms. Aazamina Rangwala,
rangwala@aiha.com, Twinning Center Volunteer Healthcare Corps.

INFO-LINK 51, December 2009 2

Pharmacists as Academic Detailers in Developing Countries: A Case Study in Nepal

Saval Khanal, B.Pharm1,2, Subish Palaian, M.Pharm2, P.R. Shankar, MD3, Pranaya Mishra, PhD 4 Mohamed Izham MI, PhD2
1
Department of Pharmacology, Nepalgunj Medical College, Banke, Nepal, 2 Discipline of Social and Administrative
Pharmacy, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia, 3 Department of Clinical
Pharmacology and Therapeutics, KIST Medical College, Lalitpur, Nepal, 4 Department of Pharmacology, Manipal Teaching
Hospital, Pokhara, Nepal

Corresponding address: khanalsaval@gmail.com

Academic detailing is an educational outreach visit of a trained educator to a healthcare provider in his or her own
setting. 1 The structure of academic detailing is quite similar to that of pharmaceutical detailing, i.e., a visit of a
pharmaceutical representative to a healthcare provider, except the information provided by an academic detailer is free
from commercial considerations. The information is evidence based and usually extracted from an impartial review of
scientific literature.

Research demonstrating the value of inter-professional collaboration of

Best wishes and greetings for a
pharmacy-tastic 2010!
Lindsay McClure, PI Section
Secretary
pharmacists with other healthcare providers to achieve better health
outcomes is common in developed countries. However, the situation is very
different in developing countries like Nepal. For developing and
strengthening the role of pharmacists as members of the healthcare team, it
is of utmost importance to create bridges connecting pharmacists to
patients, clinicians, and other healthcare professionals. In such
circumstances, pharmacists can use medication information services and
academic detailing as bridges to connect themselves to clinicians and other
healthcare professionals. They can educate other healthcare providers by
providing them clinically oriented evidence based information.

Childhood diarrheoa is one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity

in Nepal. So we (authors), the group of medical pharmacologists and
pharmacists from different institutions, planned a collaborative research project to determine the impact of academic
detailing on the knowledge, attitude, and practice of healthcare providers in healthcare institutions at different levels,
regarding childhood diarrheoa and its management in a district of Nepal. We also planned to collect data on prescribing
patterns for acute diarrheoa without hydration by sending simulated patients and caregivers. We developed our
educational tools with the help of WHO/UNICEF endorsed diarrheoa treatment guidelines plus our extensive literature
survey on the topic.
Wishing you all a peaceful year
We have almost finished our interventions in the form of academic filled with more friendship, love,
detailing sessions. Our initial data show marked improvement in laughter and joy.
knowledge, attitude, and practice scores of the healthcare providers Christie Robinson, PI Section
provided with academic detailing sessions as compared to the control Treasurer
group who were not provided these sessions. A similar result was seen
in the prescribing pattern for simulated patients with acute diarrheoa
without dehydration. Feedback collected from participants revealed
their appreciation and willingness to attend similar types of academic
detailing sessions in the future.

INFO-LINK 51, December 2009 3


I look forward to a New Year with
further improvements in pharmacy
information for all stakeholders.
Best wishes from
Theo Raynor, PI Section
Representative for Europe
Also, the department of clinical pharmacology and therapeutics of a medical
college in Nepal is routinely conducting academic detailing sessions for the
clinicians in the hospital affiliated to their medical college. The department
consists of medical pharmacologists and pharmacists. The sessions cover a
broad range of medical topics. After about a year of experience with
academic detailing, initial feedback from the participants was positive.
Currently, these sessions are conducted in a large group format. However,
the department is studying the feasibility of providing academic detailing
sessions to a small group of departmental clinicians.2

Academic detailing is very new area for pharmacists in Nepal. However we

hope these early initiatives will catalyze the involvement of Nepalese
pharmacists in academic detailing and increase their acceptance as valuable
members of the healthcare team. If successful, the experience of Nepal may
act as a role model for pharmacists in other developing countries.

References
1. Thomson OBrien MA, Oxman AD, Davis DA, et al. Educational outreach visits: effects on professional practice and
healthcare outcomes (Cochrane Review).In: The Cochrane Library, Issue 1, 2000.Oxford: Update Software.

2. PR Shankar, Jha N, Shrestha RK, Bajracharya OB, Thapa HS. Academic detailing at KIST Medical College, Lalitpur, Nepal:
initial experiences. Hong Kong Med J 2009;15: 404

News from our Members

Saval Khanal, 2009 PIS stipend recipient, recently had two publications:

Saval Khanal, Subish Palaian, P. Ravishankar, Pranaya Mishra, Mohamed Izham Mohamed Ibrahim. Academic detailing
as a possible source of drug information in the context of Nepal: A short review. J Clin Diag Res. 2009; Aug (3):1697-
1703.

Palaian Subish, Saval Khanal, Kadir Alam, Arjun Paudel. Introducing pharmacovigilance to postgraduate pharmacy
students in Nepal. Amer J Pharml Educ 2009; 73 (6) Article 114.

It has been a great pleasure having the opportunity to serve as an Exco Member of the FIP PI Section. I wish you all a very
happy year-end and a pleasant new year ahead. I implore all pharmacists everywhere in the world, to consider joining
the FIP; and, thereafter to consider being a part of the PI Section. This way, pharmacists will play a newer and more
central role in patient care and patient outcomes, through the Pharmacist-PPI (Patient Provided Information) platform.
Happy New Year! Join the FIP PI today!! Warm regards and God bless you!!!
Bisi Bright, PI Section Representative for Africa/Middle East

INFO-LINK 51, December 2009 4

TOWARDS LISBON 2010 A PEEK INTO THE UPCOMING PIS SESSIONS

Medicines Informationfrom Istanbul to Lisbon

Graeme Vernon, Austin Health Drug Information, Melbourne, Australia
Graeme.VERNON@austin.org.au
Carlos Vidotti, Brazilian Drug Information Center, Brasilia, Brazil
vidotti@cff.org.br

Our Medicines Information Symposium in Istanbul was well attended and we had a wide range of participants from
around the globe. The faculty consisted of:
Ana Cristina Ribeiro Rama, Coimbra University Hospitals, Portugal
Christie Robinson, Dept of Clinical Pharmacy, University of California, San Francisco, USA
Candy Tsourounis, Medication Outcomes Center, University of California, San Francisco, USA
Graeme Vernon, Austin Health Drug Information, Melbourne, Australia
Carlos Vidotti, Brazilian Drug Information Center, Brasilia.

The topics covered the broad areas of creating and developing services to provide independent advice for rational use of
medicines.

All the best in 2010! I hope to see
you all in FIP Lisbon Congress.
Carlos Vidotti, PI Section
Representative for Americas
major bearing on patient outcomes in terms of both safety and rational use.
There are many challenges in providing reliable and clinically relevant
information, and deficiencies exist even in countries with well developed
health care services. Our speakers and participants provided a unique
insight into the nature of information gaps which parallel the challenges of
access to medicines. There will always be a tension between spending
money on information rather than on more or better medicines; however,
the optimum use of medicines requires adequate information support.
Traditional delivery modes (books, telephone) are being challenged by
electronic delivery of information (web, portable devices). In some
countries there is also a shift to information being delivered in the form of
decision support within electronic prescribing and dispensing systems. It
will be important for medicines information specialists to contribute to the
design and implementation of electronic decision support as this will have a

We would like to thank all those who contributed to the symposium either by presenting or through audience
participation.

We are planning a seminar in Lisbon on Saturday, 28 August,
2010 (the day before the Congress) and will focus on
resources to support medicines information services. Topics
will include access to and interpretation of evidence,
published reviews, and decision support tools. This time we
will be able to offer additional discussion in Portuguese and
we should be able to demonstrate a range of information
resources including a decision support system for
pharmacists in Portugal.
From home to home, and heart to heart,
from one place to another. The warmth and
joy of Christmas, brings us closer to each
other. Wishing you all a very happy
Christmas and a prosperous new year 2010.
Vijay Roy, PI Section Representative At-Large

We hope to see you at the seminar in Lisbon, so please plan

early to be there in time to join your colleagues for the
medicines information seminar.

INFO-LINK 51, December 2009 5

Public Health Pharmacy - an unveiling paradigm of quintessential pharmaceutical care practice and therapeutic
outcomes
Bisi Bright, Live Well Initiative, Nigeria
debisibright@yahoo.com

This session on public health pharmacy is in response to the challenge thrown to pharmacists at the opening ceremony
of FIP Istanbul by the WHO Director, imploring pharmacists to look in the direction of public health and carve out new
niches. This new paradigm will help to develop and evolve Good Public Health Pharmacy Practice (GPPP) Guidelines and
Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for Public Health Pharmacy. It will also help to initiate the formalization of Public
Health Pharmacy as a Specialization, by sensitizing the participants to newer public health roles for pharmacists. The
session targets all pharmacists who are interested in the health of the public; including public health pharmacists,
community pharmacists, hospital/health system pharmacists and all healthcare professionals in general. It will no doubt,
add value to FIP Lisbon 2010 Congress.

Current Issues in Medicine and Health Care Information

Chairs: Christie Robinson, PharmD and Francoise Pradel, PhD May the New Year bring peace, love, and
happiness to all around the world.
Objectives: Franoise Pradel, PI Section
1. Identify current controversies and advances in pharmacy Representative At-Large
information.
2. Discuss clinical pearls of current issues in pharmacy.
3. Describe the evidence-based information regarding current issues
in pharmacy.
4. Identify current recommendations and therapeutic options for
current issues in pharmacy.

Authors to present their topics and abstracts for this session will be
selected in the Spring after abstracts have been submitted to FIP.

Reports

World Health Statistics 2009 contains the World Health Organizations annual compilation of data from its 193 Member
States, and includes a summary of progress towards the health-related Millennium Development Goals and targets. Also
contains a new section on reported cases of selected infectious diseases.
http://www.who.int/whosis/whostat/EN_WHS09_Full.pdf

Conferences
To all who develop and provide
information for patients: Seasons The 10th International Society of Pharmacovigilance Conference took
Greeting and a Healthy 2010!
place from 3rd 6th November 2010 in Accra, Ghana.
Han De Gier, PI Section Past-President

The Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Association (EPA) held its annual

conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from August 27 to Aug 29/2009.
Over 800 participants attended the conference.

INFO-LINK 51, December 2009 6

 2008-2012 Executive Committee Members

President
Alexander Dodoo (Ghana) alexooo@yahoo.com

Past-President
Han de Gier (Netherlands) degiercs@wxs.nl

Secretary
Lindsay McClure (U.K.) Lindsay.McClure@psnc.org.uk

Treasurer
Christie Robinson (U.S.A.) christie.robinson@ucsf.edu

Executive Committee Representative for Europe

Theo Raynor (U.K.) D.K.Raynor@leeds.ac.uk

Executive Committee Representative for Africa/Middle East

Bisi Bright (Nigeria) bisibright@livewellng.org

Executive Committee Representative for Asia/Pacific

Graeme Vernon (Australia) Graeme.VERNON@austin.org.au

Executive Committee Representative for the Americas

Carlos Vidotti (Brazil) vidotti@cff.org.br

Executive Committee Representative At-Large

Franoise Pradel (U.S.A.) fpradel@rx.umaryland.edu

Executive Committee Representative At-Large

Vijay Roy (India) vijayroy1@hotmail.com

Greetings from Melbourne. Its been another busy and challenging year but I have enjoyed working with
the Executive Committee during 2009. Our younger members have brought lots of fresh ideas and
boundless amounts of energy. They also have a vision for the future which includes a view of pharmacy as
a contributor to public health internationally.
FIP provides a means for individual pharmacists to contribute to global health. As we watch the world
seek consensus on an approach to climate change, we should be grateful that FIP has been quietly
contributing to international health for many decades.
On behalf of my colleagues in the AsiaPacific region I would like to wish everyone a relaxing festive
season, and a happy and rewarding 2010.
Graeme Vernon, PI Section Representative for Asia/Pacific

INFO-LINK 51, December 2009 7