Meeting room: Avicenna
Rapporteur: Sarp Uner, Professor, Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine Public Health Department, Turkey
Target audience: Community pharmacy, Hospital pharmacy, Industrial pharmacy, Social and Administrative Pharmacy, Policy and regulation, Health and Medicines information, Ethics, Military and emergency pharmacy, Pharmacy education and Academic pharmacy
In the Joint FIP/WHO guidelines on good pharmacy practice, one of the four key roles of pharmacists focused on health promotion is to ”contribute to improve effectiveness of the health-care system and public health”. Under this role, pharmacists have a direct responsibility and accountability for engaging in preventive care activities and services that promote public health and prevent disease, i.e. in areas such as smoking cessation, infectious and sexually transmitted diseases. They should also provide point-of-care testing, where applicable, and other health screening activities for patients at higher risk of disease. Empowering people to increase control over their health needs to go hand in hand with providing adequate support to them in terms of access to quality information and expertise on specific matters. Nowadays there is much information accessible from different sources but their validity or comprehensibility is questionable. Health care professionals are the most reliable and trusted source of information and among them, pharmacists are often ranked the most trusted. This session will showcase effective interventions by pharmacists to help communities make healthier decisions, adopt healthy habits, avoid risks and quit harmful products. The adequate remuneration of healthcare professionals to ensure these preventive measures saves costs to the healthcare system.
At the end of this session, participants will be able to: