Good Pharmacy Practice Education Conference 2019: Day Three

On the third day of the ‘Good Pharmacy Practice Education’ conference hosted by MCOPS, a second symposium on ‘Antiviral Stewardship’ was headed by Dr. Arun Kumar, Professor and Head, Department of Virus Research, MAHE.

Dr Arun opened the session with an interactive discussion on ‘Antimicrobial resistance’ and the various causes behind it. He also touched upon the history of antiviral drug discovery, how it all began in the mid-eighties and how difficult it was to develop an antiviral drug because of the rapid mutations in the virus, allowing for faster resistance.

Dr Arun went on to describe how the antimicrobial stewardship program, which was already in place, could also be extended to antivirals, in order to improve outcomes in viral diseases especially HIV and Hepatitis.

The symposium concluded with a Question and Answer session, where Dr Arun shed light on a project called ‘One Health Umbrella’. In the end, the Chairperson, GPPEd 2019, Ms. Samriddhi Kamath, presented Dr Arun with a memento.

The third workshop for GPPEd was on ‘Medication Therapy Management’ through e-conference and had Ms. Amanda Cross and Mr. John Jackson as the resource persons from Monash University, Australia.

Mr. Jackson, began the workshop by explaining the basics of Medication Therapy Management- the definition, its evolution and reasons for evolution. The goals of MTM, he said, were to optimise the patient’s medication therapy in order to extract maximum benefits and very few side effects of the drugs.

Ms. Cross described how medication use reviews are carried out and how important it is for the patient to know about his/her medications and their uses. The aim of the workshop was to educate patients and find a middle path in order to maximise adherence to the prescribed regimen.

GPPEd Day 3 came to a close with the Valedictory Ceremony. The Chief Guest, Dr. H Vinod Bhat, Vice Chancellor, MAHE graced the ceremony with his presence. He lauded the efforts of MCOPS within the pharmacy field and appreciated how MCOPS is the highest rated college amongst the institutes of MAHE. The Guest of Honor was Dr. Raghu R, Director, International Affairs and Collaborations, MAHE. All the professors who helped the GPPEd team were given mementoes. Certificates were distributed to all the delegates, the Panel Discussion team and the organising committee to appreciate their efforts. The winner of the Compounding Event, Mr. Anirudh Desai was also given an award.

The day saw an interesting workshop by Ms. Choi Yoon Jung, Chairperson of IPSF Asia-Pacific region. It was a case simulation arranged for select participants.

The participants were divided into teams of two and given different cases ranging from Diabetes mellitus to Urinary tract infections. Although the cases varied, their standard was similar. Following an intense round of discussions within the groups, Ms. Choi started the questioning round. The first team to answer questions based on the history provided to them got the highest points. Mr. Daniel assisted her in keeping score. Questions ranged from chief complaints to drug history, novel therapy options, dosage forms and adverse effects. Points were at Dr. Jung’s discretion. After multiple heated debates and interesting revelations, the session came to an end and team number five, Sahithi Thotakura and Thomas George emerged victorious. The participants later proceeded to workshops at the Biotechnology lab and Pharmacology lab where they learnt all about the basic methodologies to begin research.

GPPEd 2019 hosted an International Night on the last day for all its delegates. The event was held in Hotel 7th Heaven. It was a festive extravaganza with the delegates dancing to songs from their native country and teaching everyone else the moves. Some people also sang songs in their native language. Delegates from Iraq, Gambia, Nepal, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia and India came together for a culturally diverse night, and reminded us that although we differ in heritage, culture and traditions, we are united by love and humanity.