Challenges in the Pharmacy Profession

Challenges to the Pharmacy Profession

• The pharmacy profession faces numerous challenges, including a shift from a product-focused approach to one centered on patient care.
• Pharmaceutical care aims to improve patient quality of life by providing responsible drug therapy that achieves specific outcomes.
• Pharmacists work collaboratively with patients and other healthcare professionals to develop and monitor comprehensive treatment plans.

Shift in Focus from Product to Patient

• Pharmacists must now integrate with patients' health histories to provide more comprehensive care.
• This shift emphasizes tailoring treatment plans to individual patient needs, rather than simply dispensing products.
• Essential aspects of this shift include data collection, evaluating medical information, developing personalized therapy, and ongoing monitoring/modification of the treatment plan.
• Specific examples of the principles involved include patient data collection, medical information evaluation, formulating drug therapy plans, and implementing and modifying these plans.

Biotechnology Products and Gene Therapy

• New skills are needed for manufacturing "tailor-made" drugs and treatments to improve treatment efficacy for each patient.
• Gene therapy and treatment with antibodies are very effective but also costly.

Increase in Need for Good Quality Information

• Patients increasingly rely on the internet for information, so pharmacists must provide unbiased information and be knowledgeable and evaluate this information.
• Integrating traditional, herbal, and complementary medicine into pharmaceutical practices is necessary due to patient interest in these alternatives.
• A key concern is ensuring that commercial interests do not outweigh the pharmacist’s professional responsibility for patient care.

Use of Information Technology

• Information technology serves as an information source.
• Pharmacies utilize IT to provide pharmaceutical care more effectively.
• Pharmacists must manage pharmacies and uphold legal requirements, including those concerning reimbursement.
• IT is constantly evolving, and pharmacists must adapt to new and innovative applications effectively, including new vulnerabilities like cybersecurity issues.

Dispensing Separation

• Dispensing separation is based on the National Medicines Policy and requires improvement.
• An improved image of pharmacists and their role in patient care needs to be cultivated.
• This includes improving public acceptance, ensuring appropriate numbers and distribution of pharmacists, and addressing the role of national health coverage in subsidizing medications.

Changing Malaysian Healthcare Scenario

• The healthcare system in Malaysia is undergoing significant changes, with an increasing number of corporate players in the retail pharmacy sector (like Jusco, Cosway).
• The availability of pharmacists may need to be expanded.
• There is a need for a new Pharmacy Act (Poisons and Amendment Act 2022).
• The MOH White Paper (2023) outlines policy changes.

Health White Paper

• The white paper emphasizes various pillars for healthcare transformation, including optimizing hospital care, effective public–private partnerships, improving equity in healthcare, disease prevention, and comprehensive healthcare spending.