Pharmacists are best suited to train the patients in medication therapy management, said PS Bhagavan, former deputy director, pharmacy, Karnataka department of health and family welfare.
 
“It is easier said than done that unless the students are taught in an environment with an actual prescription, they will not be able to garner the experience in medication therapy management. In pharmacy colleges, as part of pharmacology specialisation, students need to be taught about   the logic of drug therapy and this needs to be interpreted on a case-by-case basis,” he added.
 
Pharmacists appointed in the Indian healthcare sector can play an intrinsic role in the area of medication management for patients. For this, it is critical that aspiring pharmacists should be taught to interpret prescription with reference to a lab report. It is even more crucial to ensure that teachers in pharmacy colleges are conversant in lab report interpretation to understand the prescription case wise. Therefore, in the current times, students are required to have an  exposure to the pharmacy field and have a first-hand experience on the  reality of medication therapy management, Bhagavan told Pharmabiz.
 
The healthcare sector is yet to maximise the valuable inputs from pharmacists. The presence of pharmacists in hospitals is yet to materialise in many parts of the country. One reason could be that  they lack the subject knowledge on medication therapy management. This is where we see the need to revamp the syllabus and provide the right exposure to pharmacists so that can play the dual role of drug dispenser and patient advisor, he said.
 
In the past, pharmacy college curriculum focused on pharmacology as a key subject. In the early 90s pharmacology addressed the basics in drug uses and therapeutics dealing with patient care on a case-to-case basis,  he said.
 
All efforts to give a facelift to the pharmacy profession with a focus on medication therapy management  would automatically bring pharmacovigilance to the fore. Currently, healthcare providers are looking to   increase the need to circulate banned drugs information across the hospital facility.  Here only pharmacists will be able to  streamline the drug information access among physicians, nurses and patients. This is because pharmacovigilance enables preventing the preventable medication errors and avert adverse reactions besides assess medication risks. Hence pharmacists are only proficient to train the patients in medication therapy management, pointed out Bhagavan.