The 74th International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences opened in Bangkok, Thailand, with issues of access as its overall theme.
The 74th International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences opened in Bangkok, Thailand, with issues of access as its overall theme.
Examining key challenges such as medicines availability, health workforce distribution and managing the vast amounts of variable information accessible to patients, this year’s FIP congress will offer participants the opportunity to increase their impact in ensuring access to health by providing medicines, care and information.
From 95 countries across the globe, 1938 pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists have gathered under the theme Access to medicines and pharmacists today, better outcomes tomorrow.
At the opening ceremony this afternoon President Michel Buchmann summarised progress in pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences during his four-year presidency. He highlighted the concepts that had driven his work in leading the FIP: collaboration between health care professionals, reforming pharmacy education to adopt expanded and patient-centred roles, integrating practice and science, and advancing good pharmacy practice.
However Dr Buchmann also highlighted areas where more work is needed. For example, there have been too few studies devoted to exploring how a re-distribution of health care roles can achieve more effective public health, he said. “It’s necessary to rearrange roles of health actors according to their competencies, to effectively treat patients without additional costs, beyond hierarchy or traditions,” Dr Buchmann said.
