By Chioma Umeha
Pharmacists under the auspices of Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN)
has pledged to deploy appropriate technologies to tackle high prevalence of
fake and counterfeiting drugs in the country.
Pharm. Ahmed Yakasai, the PSN President said the
time is ripe for pharmacists to take advantage of digital evolution and data
transformation to monitor medications, create value as well as enhance
service-delivery.
He spoke in Lagos during a workshop weekend,
tagged; “Convergence of technology and the impact on pharmaceutical practice,”
organised by the Education committee of the society.
Commenting on the theme, he said that PSN would
incorporate technology as part of a multidisciplinary and collaborative
healthcare team.
This, he said, would enhance pharmacy practice and
delivery of pharmaceutical services to patients.
Yakassi added that the association would deploy
the international standard dispensing software for best clinical practice,
patients’ management and intervention therapies.
Yakasai said PSN is working in partnership with
the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and
other agencies determined to fight fake drugs using the latest IT technologies.
He noted that technologies had transformed every
spectrum of the society and PSN must not be left out in the digital revolution.
“No doubt that we need to harness the power of
digital technologies and data transformation to create value and offer better
services to the public”, Yakasai said.
According to him, it is the desire of PSN “to
leverage on technology to create a better practice and training for all of us.”
He explained: “In our digital age, technology is
shaping our world in a big way and its impact in any profession can never be
underestimated. Technology is taking people and organisations from the lowest
depth of frustration to the greatest pinnacle of achievement and the
pharmaceutical sector must not be left out.”
According to him, with the technological devices,
there would be efficient standard and evidence-based medication documentation
and making of quality products for consumers.
The Chairman, PSN, Pharma Industry IT Platform,
Lekan Asuni, added that the workshop was to assess the gaps in the deployment
of IT in the pharmaceutical industry so as to bridge them.
Asuni also said that it was also vital to
controlling the cases of counterfeit drugs that had permeated the Nigerian
market.
He noted that most pharmacists have keyed into the
digitisation drive, but more efforts still need to be put in the area of
adopting appropriate technologies to drive pharmaceutical practice.
He said: “It is catching fire, but there is still
a lot to be done. It is a work in progress. The goal is to see that in
different areas of practice, we use different aspects of IT.
“Some are specific for your area of practice, but
there are some that we need to see how they link together and speak together so
that we know what is going on across different practice areas. This will enable
us have a common platform to access data and information by both practitioners
and the general public.
“So the essence of this workshop is to assess what
we have, what are the gaps and what we can do to be IT ready for the future.”
The Acting Director General, National Agency For
Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC), Yetunde Oni, who was represented
by the Assistant Director, Felicia Enigimi, urged stakeholders to adopt a
mobile application software to checkmate the status of NAFDAC-regulated
products in the country.
Corroborating earlier views, Pharm Lere Baale,
stressed the adoption into law of pharmacy informatics as a required course in
every tertiary institution for graduating students of Pharmacy.
Pharmacy informatics is a field that deals with
the use and integration of data and medicines usage in the continuum of
healthcare, including the acquisition, storage, analysis and medicines
knowledge to achieve improved health outcomes.
This inclusion, Baale explained would mean every
pharmacist graduating thereafter will be duly equipped to be relevant in the
future of healthcare.
Also, they will be in a position to use their
skills and knowledge to provide individualised and specialised patient care in
an increasingly digital world, he added.
The keynote speaker Pharm Remi Adeseun’s
presentation was an expository on the world of technology and how it will
benefit the profession.
