Programme by Topic

The Congress Programme will touch on eight main topics with several  sessions throughout. These topics range from medicines and the  healthcare team of the future, ensuring the safe and responsible use of  medicines, the future medicines supply chain and and how best to  contribute to the healthcare economy of the future.

Click the links below to visit the pages that list the Sessions within each Topic.

D. Smart pharmacy



Topic coordinators: Linda Hakes and Hiroshi Suzuki

Introduction to topic D

Health care today is subject to advances in science and technology at an almost unprecedented rate. Medicines have become much more sophisticated, targeting specific pathways involved in the development of a disease, and our ability to select the right medicine for an individual is improving steadily through better understanding of pharmacogenomics. In addition, diagnostic tests are enabling earlier detection of many diseases as well as more reliable diagnoses. Web-based information technology is being enhanced through the use of “wearable” technology that can provide real-time monitoring of an individual’s health status and provide feedback and recommendations for interventions to the patient, their carer or a health care provider. Recent developments with “gene editing” may mark the beginning of a new phase of treatment options which may offer new hope to patients suffering from previously untreatable conditions. All these developments mean that the nature of pharmacy and the role of the pharmacist are changing even more quickly than in the past. Pharmacists in every branch of the profession need to ensure that they know how to use these new technologies and how to provide appropriate advice to patients and to their fellow professionals in the health care team.

Keywords

  • Improving outcomes through novel medicines
  • Scientific approach to epidemic management
  • Effective utilisation and management of antibiotics
  • Cost-effective production and distribution of diagnostic tests
  • Facilitating transfer of technologies
  • Promoting research and development or technologies and new medicines
  • Point-of care testing (HIV/AIDS, chlamydia, helicobacter, colon cancer tests, medicine addiction tests)
  • Health literacy support and standardisation of informatics to be adopted to increase literacy level
  • mHealth as a disruptive technology leading to empowered citizens
  • ePharmacy