First International Pharmacy Conference in the UAE

November 16, 2008
Al Ain, UAE

Tawam Hospital in affiliation with Johns Hopkins Medicine, hosted the first international pharmacy conference at the Intercontinental Hotel, Al Ain on November 15th – 16th with the theme ‘Broader Horizons in Pharmacy Practice.’

With key speakers from the US, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Lebanon and the UAE, the pharmacy conference brought together leaders in the fields of hospital and clinical pharmacy practices as well as medication safety to discuss the emerging role of pharmacists both nationally and internationally.

“As the role of pharmacists has evolved over the years from solely dispensing drugs to medication monitoring and governing medication safety, we are committed to staying abreast of these changes and ensuring that medication safety remains a top priority for Tawam,” said Dr. Hashem A. Tarifi, Head of Pharmacy at Tawam Hospital.

The pharmacy conference addressed the growing issues of medication safety within hospitals and healthcare systems and also touched-base on the latest trends in managing chronic diseases; heart failure, kidney disease, and developing programs for pain and infection control in hospitals. Briefings on hot topics in technology and biotechnology were also presented.

Incorporated into the program were three workshops, the Global Strategic Plan for Hospital Pharmacy Practice as set forth by the International Pharmaceutical Federation earlier this year in Switzerland, while the other two discussed Practical and Clinical Scenarios in Parenteral Nutrition and Therapeutic Drug Monitoring respectively.

The keynote speaker at the conference, Dr. Manasse, Executive Vice President and CEO of the American Society of health-system pharmacists from the US, spoke about the advancement of the practice of pharmacy and the 2015 vision of ASHP, which focused on implementation of evidence-based medicine by making sure that patients are on the medications they should be on, based on the evidence available from the "Mega" clinical studies.

“Developing high performance medication safety systems must come from a variety of resources and take a variety of systematic factors into consideration. With medication errors accounting for one of the most frequent type of error reported, developing accurate and reliable systems to measure medication safety is essential,” said Dr.Manasse. He added: “There are many reasons that contribute to medication errors; lack of employee knowledge, misinterpreted handwriting, drug name confusion and poor communication.”

To achieve a successful outcome, accurate communication must occur among a number of individuals: prescriber, patient, pharmacist, nurse, family members / patient guardian said Dr. Robert Feroli who spoke about Anatomy of a medication error. “Although much effort goes into diagnosing a patient’s medical condition and then developing a therapeutic plan, initial steps must be integrated with the rest of the medication use process,” he added.

“As the host for the first international pharmacy conference in the UAE, we are committed to raising awareness about the latest changes taking place within the pharmacy practice. Learning and teaching others about patient safety and ensuring that we set precedent for other hospitals across the country is top priority for Tawam,” said Mr. Michael Heindel, CEO of Tawam Hospital.