Forum on Community Pharmacy Accreditation, 24-25 November 2009 (Taipei, Taiwan)

Picture of the Forum Participants after the Closing Remark

On 24-25 November 2008, the first international forum on community pharmacy accreditation was domestically held in Taipei Medical University (TMU) in Taiwan.  This forum was part of the project granted by the Department of Health, Study on Accreditation System in Different Countries.  And, the forum was co-hosted by the Federation of Asian Pharmaceutical Associations and sponsored by Taipei Pharmacists’ Association, Cheng’s Foundation for Pharmaceutical Sciences, and T.M.U. Pharmacy Alumni Foundation for Culture and Education.

Six inviting speakers from different countries shared with the audience about their experience involving in development of the quality assurance systems:

1. Ms. Park Hye Kyung (Principle Research Scientist, Korea Institute for Pharmaceutical Policy Affairs, Korea);

Right, Ms. Park Hye Kyung Receiving the Forum Gift

2. Mr. Nobuo Yamamoto (Vice-President of Japan Pharmaceutical Association, Japan);

Mr. Yamamoto Session in the Morning, Forum Day 1 (11/24)

3. Mr. Katha Bunditanukul (President of Community Pharmacist Foundation, Thailand);

Mr. Bunditabukul

4. Angela Su, Pharm.D. (Pharmacist of Taipei Medical University-Wan Fang Hospital, USA/Taiwan);

5. Mr. John Chang (President-Elect of FAPA, Malaysia);

Mr John Chang (Malaysia)

6. Mr. Jay Hooper (Past National President of Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, Australia) 。

Mr. Jay Hooper (Australia)

Dr. Ming-Jer Shieh (Vice President of TMU), Ms. Li-Ling Liu (Deputy Director General of Bureau of Pharmaceutical Affairs), and Dr. Soo-Ja Nam (President of FAPA) addressed all the participants that community pharmacies and the community pharmacists are fundamentally crucial and they take care after people, provide health consultation.  Therefore, to establish a higher standard should be the goal to keep working on, and put into practice.

Dr. Soo Ja Nam Taking Question in the Forum

In Forum Day 1, theme of the day was Community Pharmacy Accreditation.  Ms. Park as first speaker shared the newly drafted Korean Good Pharmacy Practice guidelines and told the guidelines would be put into practice together with the pharmacy education reformation (4 to 6 years) in 2009.  Forum second speaker was Mr. Yamamoto, and he spent a lot of time talking about the history of Japanese pharmacy development which well-explained what brought the Japanese pharmacists to the status of nowadays.  The accreditation system of Japan has been modified up to version No. 3.  The following Mr. Bunditanukul started talking about the health insurance reform in Thailand that followed with the joint cooperation among the Thailand pharmacy administration, Food and Drug Administration of Thailand and the Community Pharmacy Association to develop the Community Pharmacy Development and Accreditation Program.

Starting of the afternoon session, Ms. Su shared her American experience which told us that USA doesn’t have the kind of accreditation system but apply the pharmacy laws regulating the opening of a standardized pharmacy.  Mr. Chang kicked out lots of problems that Malaysians might face that some of us are facing, which provide the audience different views over looking the benchmarking guidelines. Mr. Hooper from Australia introduceed their system, QCPP (Quality Care Pharmacy Practice), for the audience and made a much higher overview to the quality assurance system.

Theme for the Forum Day 2 was Internship of Pharmacy Students in Community Pharmacy.  The Forum arranged 3 presentations in the morning according to the maturity of development from different countries. Ms. Park presented Korean developing courses, Mr. Yamamoto presented their developed system, and Mr. Hooper presented the well-developed program.  It’s not about comparing at all but made the chance for the people to learn from each other, to know what others are doing, to share what we have and what we don’t have.

2 days of forum was ended by Dr. Nam’s closing remark.  As being the supervisor of the granted project and the forum, Professor Kuang-Yang Hsu was in the hope that the forum could bring different inspirations for pharmacists in Taiwan.  And taking different community pharmacy accreditation systems for reference, development of Taiwan community pharmacy accreditation system should be taken into consideration.  Especially for the community pharmacists and pharmacies, the discussion and communication should be continuous with pharmacy professional organizations and the pharmacy administration involved.  In the end, we could make the most benefit for all upon a better and higher standard.