Pharmacists in sport - Royal Pharmaceutical Society

N E W S R O U N D U P
M E D I A V I E W
Society leads the call for
original pack dispensing
ACAMPAIGN calling for medicines
to be dispensed to patients in their
original packs is being spearheaded
by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great
Britain’s English National Board.
Original Pack Dispensing could help
improve patient adherence and reduce
medicines wastage.
At present community pharmacists
frequently dispense medicines from
manufacturers’ original packs when the pack
size does not correspond to the prescribed
quantity. According to Howard Duff the
RPSGB’s Director for England, this adds
additional steps to the dispensing process.
“The pharmacist needs to provide
additional Patient Information Leaflets
and may need to ‘snip’ tablets from
manufacturers’ blisters”, he says.
“We have pledged to understand and
address the issue of workplace pressures
within the profession, activities such as
‘snipping’ blister packs and finding additional
leaflets for patients increase the workload
associated with dispensing for pharmacists
and their staff.
“This is also an issue that impacts on
patients. The snipping of tablets damages the
integrity of the audit trail, as batch number
and expiry dates may be missing and also
means that patients may be provided with
odd tablets.
“We believe dispensing medicines from
more than one pack, and /or not in original
packs, may cause more medicines to be
wasted and contributes to poor adherence,”
he adds.
In order to launch its proposed campaign
the English National Board has called a
meeting of interested parties, chaired by
Professor Nick Barber, Professor of the
Practice of Pharmacy at the School of
Pharmacy, University of London, with the
objective of consensus building so a definitive
course of action can be agreed.
“A wide range of interested parties has
been invited to participate in the working
group and to join what we believe to be a
vitally important initiative for patients and
professionals alike, Howard Duff says.” n
New face at Pharmacist Support
PHARMACIST SUPPORT, the UK’s
leading independent welfare charity
for pharmacists and their families, has
announced a new member to its team.
Charity Manager, Diane Leicester replaces
David Qualter, who has made a significant
contribution to the work of the charity since
he joined the organisation in October 2007,
and was instrumental in steering Pharmacist
Support in its new, more dynamic direction.
Diane, who has extensive experience of
the charity sector, having previously worked
at Age Concern and Help The Aged on the
charity’s only national programme, ‘Your
Money Matters’, will work with the team
to further develop and enhance Pharmacist
Support’s comprehensive range of services
and to ensure that the charity remains
in-tune with the needs of modern day
pharmacists.
“Pharmacist Support has proven to be
an extremely valuable support mechanism
for pharmacists and their families. Having
worked within the charity sector for a
number of years, I truly appreciate the
benefits that an organisation like this can
bring to many people,” Diane says.
Formerly known as the Benevolent
Fund of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
of Great Britain, Pharmacist Support is
an independent charitable organisation
working for pharmacists and their families.
The Charity provides confidential financial
and pastoral support in times of need. More
information is available online at www.
pharmacistsupport.org. n
A prominent year for health
Stand by for new manifestos
THERE are many reasons
why 2010 is a prominent
date in health calendars,
not least for the new manifestos,
spending reviews and leadership
it will bring – by June a new
government will be in place.
But for longer term visions of
healthcare delivery, treatment
design and illness prevention,
June carries greater significance;
as the tenth anniversary of what
Bill Clinton and Tony Blair
referred to as “the scientific
breakthrough of the century,
perhaps of all time”.
The announcement of the
draft human genome – the map
of our basic genetic code – may
have come laced with political
hyperbole, but it could still stake
such a claim. Here were the
building blocks of life, set out
for all to analyse and interpret;
understand how genes express
themselves and it would help
show how diseases are caused.
It wasn’t just the politicians
that were breathlessly effusive.
Scientists, often the public
skeptics, talked of the project’s
transformative power on our
approach to health, illness and
the development of medicines –
of how, armed with the scaffold
of the human species and the
means of mapping the specific
alterations in any given patient,
doctors could tailor treatments to
the individual designed to iron
out his or her disease-generating
genetic kinks.
And yet while research
has changed in all manner of
ways – you need only look
at the number of genes now
linked to specific conditions
– frontline medicine has not.
Sam Lister, Health Editor, The Times
The genetic revolution hailed
with such fanfare (and in no
small way magnified by media
coverage) has brought some
treatment breakthroughs, but
the translational impact has
been small. Take cancer; a
handful of drugs have been
developed to target the precise
genetic mutations driving
tumours (Herceptin and Glivec
are the most high-profile), but
refined versions of the old
treatment staples – radiotherapy,
chemotherapy, surgery – still
dominate the field.
If prevention
is the best
medicine, this
sort of risk
calculator is sure
to have people
queuing in the
pharmacy for
help quitting
the fags
Just before Christmas, the
evolution of cancer genomics
gave us something more
substantial. When, come June,
the what-has-the-genomeever-done-for-us
questions
start to fly, the work will be
highlighted time and again. Two
studies – involving small-cell
lung cancer and malignant
melanoma (the deadliest form
of skin cancer) – catalogued
every genetic mutation present
in the tumours of two patients.
The findings showed the
genes driving the damage,
and how the genetic chaos is
exacerbated by environmental
factors such as smoking and
alcohol consumption. (The lung
cancer sufferer was picking up
a genetic mutation for every 15
cigarettes he smoked, caused
by the carcinogenic agents in
smoke.)
If prevention is the best
medicine, this sort of risk
calculator is sure to have people
queuing in the pharmacy for
help quitting the fags. The
same applies to genetic risk
assessments for a range of
other problems: If you know,
from your genetic profile, that
you carry an increased chance
of Type 2 diabetes or macular
degeneration, you might decide
to do more exercise or add more
oily fish to your diet.
Powerful drugs
The armoury of powerful drugs
designed to target DNA errors
that cause cancer may still be
some way off, but genomes are
now highlighting ways in which
disease can be prevented. Over
the coming years, the genetic
profile “print-out” – what
diseases a person has an above/
below average risk of – will
become a feature of healthcare
delivery from the hospital to the
high street. Several companies
already offer the service. Send
away some saliva or a cheek
swab, and they will send you
back your risk assessment for
a variety of mainstream health
problems. The cost is still high
(about £300 is the cheapest test
going, with the average around
£1,000) but it is becoming more
affordable by the day. Some
people will always opt not to
know their future health hurdles.
But while chairing a panel
debate on identity and genetics
recently, I asked the audience
who would have a test. More
than half of hands went up.
Brave new world
And here we reach the problem.
The health service is untrained
and ill-equipped to deal with
this brave new world, as a
parliamentary committee
warned last year. If I walked into
the average general practice or
pharmacist and asked for health
advice based on my gene printout,
I would be met with blank
expressions. The Department
of Health has, belatedly,
acknowledged the system’s
shortcomings – in December
a Human Genomics Strategy
Group was set up to consider
all these issues. The changes to
healthcare may not have been
as speedy as the politicians and
scientists predicted 10 years ago,
but let this June be the spur to
the health community to start
understanding and embracing
our genetic futures. n
l Sam Lister is Health Editor of
The Times. A former news editor
and health correspondent, he
has covered the health service
in times of feast and famine,
the medical community through
reformation and revolt, and some
of the extraordinary advances
in clinical practice and disease
control in recent years.
6 Pharmacy Professional | February 2010
February 2010 | Pharmacy Professional
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