IPSF PARO Newsletter Spring 2015 Edition

IPSF PARO Newsletter

Spring 2015

In this Issue *Meet the Regional Working Group and Subcommittees * Pan American Regional Symposium 2015 *World Diabetes Day Events *World AIDS Day Events *SEP in Taiwan *....and more!

IPSF PARO Newsletter #2 Spring 2015

Meet the Regional Working Group 2014-2015

4

Meet the Subcommittees 2014-2015

5

Introduction from the Chairperson of the 9th IPSF Pan American Regional Symposium

6

Achieving Universal Health Coverage: Discussion from the 8th Pan American Regional Symposium

9

IPSF Student Exchange Program in Taiwan

10

World Diabetes Day Events

12

World AIDS Day around the Region

14

Designed by

On the Cover

Edited by

Lower Left: Students from Western University of Health Sciences (APhA-USA), form a human red ribbon for World AIDS Day.

Ms. Sara DiTursi PARO Regional Media and Publications Officer Ms. Dayl Eccles PARO Secretary

Top Right: Students from the University of Alberta (CAPSI), host an event for World Diabetes Day.

Meet the Regional Working Group 2014-2015

Chairperson of the Pan American Regional Office Mr. Angel Acosta

Secretary Ms. Dayl Eccles

Regional Media and Publications Officer Ms. Sara DiTursi

Regional Projects Officer Ms. Jessica Zook

Regional Relations Officer Mr. Lucas Ercolin

Chairperson of the 9th IPSF Pan American Regional Symposium Mr. Jorge A. Schlรถttke

PARO Subcommittees 2014-2015 Translation Subcommittee Emily Jaynes, APhA-ASP (USA) Lissette Mellado, CAPSI (Canada) Colleen O’Connell, APhA-ASP (USA) Elena Schaller, APhA-ASP (USA) Membership Promotion Subcommittee Chanmee Park, APhA-ASP (USA) Sheena Patel, APhA-ASP (USA) Public Health Project Sub-Coordinators Public Health Series – Juan Camilo Enciso Beltran, ACEQF (Colombia) Vampire Cup – Luiza de Oliveira Mota, CACIF (Brazil) Diabetes and Healthy Living – Ifeoma Ibe, APhA-ASP (USA) Website Development Sub-Coordinator Grace Chun, APhA-ASP (USA)

9th IPSF Pan American Regional Symposium ARGENTINA – 2015

Knowledge and commitment: baseline to get results in public health THE MOST “GAUCHO” IPSF EVENT EVER! Dear student pharmacists and recent graduates, Beginning to talk about the 9th IPSF PARS is not an easy job; I don’t know where to start!

For some history on PARS, it all started in 2002 with the founding of the Pan American Regional Office. The first PARS took place in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in the United States.

IPSF-PARS is the biggest event in the region, and is the only meeting we have outside of the global IPSF World Congress. Each region holds their own Symposium, and being a member of PARO that makes PARS very relevant to every one of us!

•1994: 40th World Congress - Honduras •1997: 43rd World Congress - Canada •2000: 46th World Congress - San Salvador •2004: 50th World Congress - Canada Since the founding of the Regional Office, we have held many of our own events: •2002: 1st PARS - USA •2003: 2nd PARS - Mexico •2004: 3rd PARS - Panama •2005: 4th PARS - Jamaica •2006: 5th PARS - Ecuador •2007: 6th PARS – Costa Rica •2008: 7th PARS – Mexico •2012: Pharmatour – Colombia •2014: 8th PARS – Brazil

Our region has had many notable people inAs you can appreciate, our history is really volved in IPSF for a long part of IPSF’s history. exciting. Influential people helped our contiSome examples of our roots: nent to become involved in IPSF and also held big events attended by those in our continent.

•1959: Mr. Glein Moir from Canada, who was For this reason we are very committed and we the first IPSF President from our region. want make an unforgettable event for you.

•1973, Paris: Mr. Carlos J Lopez from Mexico, who was the first Latin American Participant The 9th IPSF Pan American Regional Symin a World Congress, where he was designated posium will be held in San Luis, a province IPSF Commissioner for the Latin American in the center of Argentina where the climate Region. is balanced all the yearlong with an average •1989: Mr. Eric Anderson from the USA annual temperature of 17ºC. The maximum served as President of IPSF. temperature is 33ºC and the minimum tem•2001: Leonard Plain from the USA served as perature 3ºC. The scenery of this area includes President of IPSF. mountains with different shapes, heights and, among them, Great Plains and numerous And what about IPSF events? Our continent lakes. has hosted a number of relevant events for IPSF, such as: The Symposium will be between June 16th and 22nd. The activities that we are organizing •1977: 23rd World Congress - Mexico for you are very exciting! A lot of opportuni•1986: 32nd World Congress - Panama ties are waiting for you, including conferences, •1989: 35th World Congress - USA workshops, a public health campaign, industry

visits, compounding, Leaders in Training activities, social events, Argentinean day, and more!

•Materials for the symposia The registration periods are:

The registration fee includes:

•5th of January - 5th of April: €270.00 •6th of April -. 6th of May: €320.00 •7th of May - 7th of June: €350.00

•Accommodation for 6 days (June 16-22nd) •Lunch for 5 days •Opening ceremony dinner •Dinner for 4 days •Gala Night dinner •Coffee breaks during events •Argentine Day •Entrance to all 4 social events

If you have any suggestions or questions about the symposia, do not hesitate to contact the Reception Committee at pars@paro.ipsf.org.

Keep calm, and come to the most “GAUCHO” IPSF event ever!

By Jorge Schlöttke Chairperson of the 9th IPSF Pan American Regional Symposium 2014-2015

Achieving Universal Health Coverage: Discussion from the 8th Pan American Regional Symposium “I decided to go to Great Britain to find out how a hospital can be free and drugs can cost only 10 dollars.”

– Sicko (2007) At the 8th IPSF Pan American Regional Symposium, after watching a movie called Sicko, from Michael Moore, the first question raised was about the cost of health. For all the students at the time, paying for health is a reality.

While paying for health is a reality for students, some countries do not have their citizens in the same situation as Great Britian or share the idea of “health as a peoples’ right, and a state’s obligation” to provide low or no cost care to the population and, sometimes, even to foreigners.

The world has three ideologies related to how to provide health. The first is independent health financing; this allows the patient, or customer, to be fully responsible for their individual health. The second is Universal Health Coverage, which the World Health Organisation defines the goal as “to ensure that all people obtain health services they need without financial hardship when paying for them.” And the third is socialized medicine, a form of universal health coverage that sees the health of the population as part of the state’s work by paying for care through taxes.

able which one has better health outcomes.

Leaving health to the free market, as was done in the United States starting in the 1970s with President Richard Nixon’s The National Health Insurance Partnership Act and The Health Maintenance Organisation Assistance Act, was intended to accomplish the goals of affordable care for all citizens.

However, this has resulted in a complex situation where only those who have money will pay for and sometimes receive healthcare.

Providers also are reimbursed on the amount of procedures provided and not the quality of care, and insurance companies preferentially provided insurance to those who do not need to take advantage of health services.

This allowed private insurance companies to profit, and if the disease led to monetary loss of the healthcare facility, the treatment may be denied.

The state may serve as a regulator market, defining the legality of prices and forbidding unfair practices of health providers. Nevertheless, lobbyists and corruption may be an issue, because politicians may receive money from business enterprises, which can make their political opinions biased. Corruption can appear in any market with paying an inspector to unsee any issues, to directly corrupting politicians. The other possibility for the state to achieve Universal Health Coverage is to subsidize the cost of care in part or in whole.

Socialized medicine is another extreme, where the responsibility of the cost is taken from the individual or enterprises, and is We can see those ideologies as either free subsidized completely by the state. This is not market, without state interference, or as free care, because the funding is provided by state-driven with the state taking on the full taxes prior to the need for assistance. The enresponsibility for health. The government can tire society will pay for the health of all, even decide which we should have, and it is debat-

for those who cannot contribute financially.

Corruption can then come from fully within the state, without interference from outside enterprises.

Accepting the free market model as the best option for a society to provide health implies that a part of the society will have no access to any level of care, and that complex treatments may bankrupt even those that were not poor in the first place. With a variety of options to find treatment, there is a chance that competition will drive down the cost of care. Providers may also have little space to improve salary or job conditions because this can affect the profit of the enterprises, and there are little monetary incentives to improve these conditions.

As health providers, we may have a life that allows us more luxury with a higher salary,

By Lucas Ercolin

but what is the cost? Is our luxury fair if it comes at the cost of poverty and sickness of a certain sector of the population?

Socialized medicine also has costs and benefits to us directly. If the only employer is the state, there is very little room to seek better salary or job conditions. In these countries, strikes and demonstrations may be the only way to improve quality. This, however, can lead to police brutality, arrests, and even demission. Healthcare quality may also be poorer as a whole; however, that is not the rule. Health, overall, will be provided to the entire population.

These topics were discussed at the 8th Pan American Regional Symposium in Brasil in 2014. Which position do you have?

PARO Regional Relations Officer 2014-2015

Edited by Dayl Eccles

PARO Secretary 2014-2015

Experiencing Pharmacy Practice in Taiwan This past summer, I was delighted to represent APhA-ASP (USA) in the IPSF Student Exchange Program (SEP). Choosing countries in which to apply to was difficult, but I wanted to step outside my comfort zone and I chose Taiwan, a completely new place for me very far from home (about a 16 hour flight from my home in New York!). I was eager to learn all that I could from the program and time in Taiwan. I was placed in an independent community pharmacy, Pu Cheng Pharmacy, for 4 weeks. The SEP program was organized by a group of wonderful, welcoming students at Taipei Medical University (TMU).

The community pharmacy I was placed in was

about a 1 hour commute from the school dormitory. The pharmacists and staff at the pharmacy were very welcoming, and the pharmacy manager, Mr. Huang, was eager to teach us all about pharmacy practice in Taiwan. Myself and another student from APhA-ASP aided in preparing and dispensing medications (the prescriptions and labels were in both English and Traditional Chinese although many of the medication brand names are different than in the United States!) and had a mini-lesson each afternoon on a class of drugs or Chinese medicine. We also learned how to counsel on how to take a blood pressure in Mandarin and learned some useful phrases in Mandarin We also would discuss with the pharmacists what

some differences were in pharmacy practice between the two countries. We also took field trips to other locations of the pharmacy: a nursing home to which the pharmacy delivers

medications, and a presentation at a camp for children from single parent homes. The pharmacists also introduced us to many Taiwanese foods when lunch was ordered each day. Another unique aspect of Pu Cheng Pharmacy was that it is know for being the only pharmacy in Taipei that also sells organic vegetables.

This is just one way the pharmacists there influence the overall health of their patients.

Another highlight of my time in Taiwan was attending the Good Pharmacy Practice Conference, which was put on by the Asia Pacific Regional Office of IPSF. I learned a great deal from the conference and from the other pharmacy students and pharmacists who attended the conference. We also had the opportunity to visit the National Health Insurance Administration and Taipei Veterans Medical Center to gain further insight into different areas of pharmacy practice in Taiwan.

Pharmacy practice differs significantly from the United States in that Taiwan has a well established National Health Insurance system.

The bulk of the dispensing of medications is performed in the hospital rather than in community pharmacies, as in the United States.

The workload on hospital pharmacists is quite large in Taiwan because pharmacy technicians are not utilized and because of the sheer prescription volume that the pharmacy experiences on a daily basis. Since healthcare is offered for a very low copay, the hospitals cater to a larger number of patients as compared

with the United States. The hospital offers clinical services that are similar to hospitals in the United States such as medication therapy management and pharmacist-run clinics.

Currently in Taiwan, a Bachelor’s degree is required for new pharmacists, however, there are Master’s and PhD programs to further hone the clinical skills of newly trained pharmacists. Many pharmacists in Taiwan that are interested in clinical pharmacy choose to complete their PharmD degree in the United States.

Of course, besides working in the pharmacy, the students at TMU showed myself and the other SEP students many beautiful sights in Taiwan such as nightmarkets, temples, shopping and trying many types of Taiwanese cuisine! Because of the great students at TMU, I experienced many things that Taiwan has to offer.

The SEP Program in Taiwan and internship at Pu Cheng Pharmacy was an extremely eye-opening experience, changing my outlook on the pharmacy profession and the role pharmacists play in patient care. I also formed friendships with many other student pharmacists who are also passionate about IPSF.

By Sara DiTursi PARO Regional Media and Publications Officer 2014-2015

A Blue Day On November 14th of every year, pharmacists, patients, doctors, and many other healthcare and non-healthcare workers join together to create a day of awareness for diabetes. For the past few years, IPSF has been joining in on the World Diabetes Day activities and spreading awareness to pharmacy students and patients all around the globe.

One key component of living a healthy life with diabetes is eating a healthy and balanced diet. This year, the International Diabetes Federation focused on the theme “Go Blue For Breakfast” to promote healthy eating.

PARO started out the month of November by promoting the Blue Monument Challenge, in which people can choose a local monument to light up on World Diabetes Day in order to increase awareness about diabetes. In the week leading up to November 14th, PARO posted four healthy breakfast recipes from around our region which can be found on the PARO Facebook site:

-Spinach, Tomato and Feta Cheese Baked Egg -Banana Smoothie -Spanish Tortilla -Egg and Avocado Toast

On World Diabetes Day, IPSF Pharmacy Students joined people from all over the world in raising diabetes awareness by using the International Diabetes Federation “Selfie App.” Students posted pictures of themselves wearing blue, or eating a healthy breakfast with the classic blue circle logo of World Diabetes Day. Thank you to everyone in PARO who helped to increase awareness about World Diabetes Day and the importance of eating healthy food!

By Jessica Zook

PARO Regional Projects Officer 2014-2015

World Diabetes Day at the University of Alberta On November 14th, World Diabetes Day, I hosted an Eating Competition for Diabetes Awareness at the University of Alberta.

I know this seems contradictory to the cause, but I thought it would generate more attention that way! The turn-out to the event was excellent – students from all years, including B.S. and PharmD students, showed up to cheer on their fellow classmates.

I did a short presentation at the And the winners are....! start of the event, getting everyone on the same page about why World Diabetes Day is important and relevant, some common patient misconceptions, and ways to assess diabetes risk such as the Blue Circle Test.

For the competition, we had eight teams of three students compete against each other.

Each person was expected to eat three food items from the healthy eating diabetes prevention food list, as recommended by the Canadian Diabetes Association: person 1 was responsible for beans, tomatoes, sweet potatoes; person 2 was responsible for non-fat milk, whole wheat bread, spinach; person 3 was responsible for canned tuna, oranges, and corn). Because a little friendly competition is healthy, the winning team received coffee shop gift cards.

There was participation from all years, including the Bachelor’s and PharmD programs – it turned out to be a great event for all the years to get together!

How am I going to eat all this food??

By Phoebe Hsu IPSF Representative Alberta Pharmacy Students’ Association (CAPSI) Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences University of Alberta

World AIDS Day December 1st, 2014 World AIDS Day was promoted by student pharmacists all throughout the Pan American Region of IPSF on December 1st. Below are just a few of the initiatives that student pharmacists around the region promoted during this public health campaign.

Western University of Health Sciences (APhA-ASP, USA) celebrated World AIDS Day by encouraging students to wear red. Student pharmacists also formed a human red ribbon.

Students at Univ. Nacional de San Luis (AEFRA, Argentina), distributed information about HIV/AIDS and offered the instant HIV test, of which had over 64 participants.

Students at Rutgers University (APhA-ASP, USA) held a bake sale and promoted awareness about HIV/AIDS. Proceeds from the bake sale were donated to a local AIDS foundation.

Students from University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (APhA-ASP, USA) hosted a guest speaker from the Colorado Harm Reduction Action Center who spoke on HIV stigma and needle exchange. The student pharmacists sold red ribbons and the proceeds were donated to the National AIDS Trust. Students were also encouraged to wear red, and posted fliers with HIV/AIDS facts around their campus.

World AIDS Day December 1st, 2014

Students at the University of Washington School of Pharmacy (APhA-ASP, USA) formed a human ribbon and passed out buttons to all participants.

Students also made and sold red ribbon key chains and raised over $100 to donate.

In support of the HIV/AIDS Awareness Campaign, the IPSF Committee of Notre Dame Chapter (APhA-ASP, USA) hosted their annual educational event that consisted of SOP students and faculty presenting informative materials. This year, they had the opportunity to hear from an HIV-positive speaker as well as see a mobile HIV testing van.

We want to say a special thanks to the Women Accepting Responsibility Organization (WAR) and our strong and inspiring speaker.

Newsletter #2 Spring 2015

Designed by Ms. Sara DiTursi PARO Regional Media and Publications Officer

Edited by Ms. Dayl Eccles PARO Secretary