H.E. Dr. Ahmed Mohammed Al Saidi, Minister of Health, inaugurated yesterday Tuesday the 7^th Pharmaceutical Care Conference at Al Bustan Palace Hotel amid a wide range of local, regional, and international participation. The conference, held under the theme “Towards Professional Excellence in Pharmacy Practice’’, was organized by the Ministry of Health (MOH) represented by the Directorate General of Medical Supplies.

The inauguration program included a welcome speech from the Directorate General of Medical Supplies delivered by Ph. Nussaiba Habib Mohammed, the Director General where she affirmed the role of pharmacists in following up the use of medications, controlling their doses, and monitoring the pharmaceutical therapy. Ph. Nussaiba further pointed out that the occupational skills of pharmacists are not limited to experience but expand to include multiple skills that pharmacists must acquire to be qualified, among them are communication skills, practice of patient safety principles, continuing professional education, and evidence-based- practice.

Then, the conference keynote was delivered by Osama Tabbara, Senior Director of the Cleveland Clinic’s department of Pharmacy Services in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Mr. Tabarra’s speech focused on the Present & Future of Hospital Pharmacy Practice in the Gulf Region and the way forward improving the statue of the pharmacy profession in the region. He remarked on the challenges that face the profession and proposed long-term solutions. Tabarra summarized his presentation by the two Major Programmatic Goals that are; design safe medication use system based on highest technologies and patient-centered pharmacist practice model.

Concluding the inauguration program, the Health Minister opened the accompanying exhibition with the participation of the most important local and international medication manufacturing companies as well as Pharmacy sector institutions. The exhibition displayed the latest products and technologies in the medication industry and provided pharmaceutical information.

More than 700 pharmacists and assistants pharmacists, doctors, and nurses took part in this three-day conference from the different MOH health establishments, Ministry of Defence, Royal Oman Police (ROP), Diwan of Royal Court, and Sultan Qaboos University Hospital (SQUH), in addition to other participants from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and several other countries.

Furthermore, several international bodies participated in the conference to enrich the audience with their experiences and practices, which are namely the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP Canada), the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP), the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists, and the British Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS).  

Besides local lecturers, number of speakers specialized in the field of Pharmaceutical Practices from the United States of America (USA), along with number of Pharmaceutical Care experts from leading international medical centers coming from Jordan, KSA, UAE, Spain, Canada, Croatia, and others present lectures in the conference.

The conference program includes 45 local and international working papers on the latest updates in the pharmacy practices distributed in 11 scientific sessions in addition to several workshops.

The conference was preceded by two workshops conducted in the morning entitled future job opportunities for pharmacy profession that held under the supervision of Pharmacy Society of the School of Pharmacy, University of London. The second workshop was on the excellent pharmacist supervised by the American Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE).

The conference sessions will continue for two days starting tomorrow morning (Wednesday) and discuss topics such as leadership and management building capacity, medication optimization and safety, antimicrobial Stewardship, pharmacy technician, community pharmacy, and patient centered pharmacy practice.

The scientific program also include (32) scientific posters from (6) countries done by practitioners and students to be assessed by academics and experts referees.

It is worth to mention that the participants of the Pharmaceutical Care Conference in its current course will get  9 academic hours accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) in the field of continuing education, in addition to (10.5) academic hours (category A) accredited by the Oman Medical Specialties Board (OMSB).