PharmWeb

http://www.pharmweb.net/futurepharmacy2007.html

Prepare for the Future: The Impact of New Technologies on the Future of
Pharmacy Practice and Science

Who should attend?
Anyone who is interested in the future direction of pharmacy including
undergraduate and postgraduate students, practising pharmacists, educators
and related health-professionals.

Conference Background
'Prepare for the Future' has been organised to mark the opening of the new
School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Central
Lancashire. The conference will consider changes in the profession of
pharmacy and how new and developing technologies will have an impact on
pharmacy practice and science. How should the profession develop/adapt to
meet future challenges and opportunities?

The profession of pharmacy is in an evolutionary phase. New pharmacy
legislation in the form of the Section 60 Order will have a tremendous
impact on the profession. The new pharmacy contract introduced in 2005 has
provided pharmacists with exciting opportunities to more fully utilise their
range of skills by expanding the range of services that can be provided such
as medicines use reviews, promotion of healthy lifestyles and independent
prescribing. Pharmacists are now having greater clinical input and patient
contact, and are able to provide unique input as part of an integrated team
of healthcare providers. The important changes that have occurred in the
profession in recent years will be considered, including how Government
policy is driving these changes. The Pharmacy 2020 project was launched in
2006 and aims to identify the challenges and drivers that affect the
profession's ability to fulfill its potential in health care provision, to
identify good practice in pharmacy and to prepare a forward strategy to take
pharmacy to the year 2020.

In addition to changes in the pharmacist's professional role, emerging
technologies are also going to have a tremendous impact on the future
direction of pharmacy. A number of these technologies will be considered:

An overview of new and developing drug delivery technologies will be
provided with an emphasis on nanotechnologies. Nanocarriers are being
developed which offer great potential benefits to patients and new
opportunities for pharmaceutical and drug delivery companies.
The impact of pharmacogenomics on the future of medicine will be discussed.
Current knowledge of the the influence of genetic variation on drug response
in patients has demonstrated that for certain diseases we can improve
therapy using "personalised medicines", in which drugs and drug combinations
are optimised for each individual's unique genetic makeup.
We are in the midst of the 'Communications Revolution'. Information
Technology has had a tremendous impact on our daily lives, with networks
such as the Internet enabling information to be easily accessed and
exchanged irrespective of geographical location. The NHS Connecting for
Health programme is an ambitious attempt to bring modern computer systems
into the NHS with a view to improving patient care and services. The aim is
to connect over 30,000 GPs in England to almost 300 hospitals and give
patients access to their personal health and care information. This will
transform the way the NHS works. An overview of the programme will be
presented together with the current status, and how the new system will have
an impact on the pharmacist.
Given the changes that are taking place in pharmacy it is not surprising
that the Royal Pharmaceutical Society has initiated a consultation on
education in pharmacy. An update on the consultation exercise Principles of
Pharmacy Education and Training will be provided with a review of how
pharmacy education has been delivered historically and how pharmacy
education must change so that future pharmacists can meet the requirements
and demands of the changing profession.