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ANDREW L. GRAY, M.SC.(PHARM.), FPS, is Senior Lecturer, Department of Therapeutics and Medicines Management, Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal, PBag 7, Congella 4013, South Africa, and President, Hospital Pharmacy Section, International Pharmaceutical Federation (graya1{at}ukzn.ac.za).

All too often, hospital pharmacists are focused firmly on the patients at hand, the challenges of inadequate staffing or equipment, or the shortages of medicines. Many of us face not only high occupancy rates in our hospitals but also challenging outpatient loads or responsibility for outlying primary care clinics. There is rarely the opportunity to devote sufficient time to envisioning the preferred future for hospital pharmacy. However, where the profession has taken the time to do so, such events have been milestones in the history of pharmacy.

I can well recall, as a young hospital pharmacist, receiving a copy of the most recent American Journal of Hospital Pharmacy in mid-1986, which covered the Direction for Clinical Practice in Pharmacy conference, held at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, in February 1985. Immediately, I was able to recognize the relevance of these proceedings to my own practice setting. I felt that "I can do this." Even taking into account the vast differences in resources, the basic elements were applicable and demanded attention. At the time, Zellmer¹ had written: "To bring about change within a diverse profession such as pharmacy one needs a large number of people pulling in the same direction. Before one can get folks pulling in the same direction, one needs general agreement about the best direction in which to move." This weekend’s conference promises to be another of those moments, a unique opportunity to stop, take stock, think, and plan a way forward for the whole hospital pharmacy profession.

I was also privileged to attend the first conference of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists in Amsterdam in 1996. The results of the first pan-European survey of hospital pharmacy practice were used as the basis for that meeting. Again, I remember trying to benchmark my own practice against these results and taking away a strong sense of what was possible.

For the past three years, the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) Hospital Pharmacy Section has worked in collaboration with hospital pharmacy associations around the globe to develop what is sure to be a historic event. In particular, I would like to thank the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists, and the Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists for their financial support.

An event of this nature cannot be attempted without considerable financial resources, and we are particularly thankful for the generous support of our Platinum Sponsor: Cardinal Health. Support has also been obtained from Amgen, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Grifols and Hospira. In particular, their support has enabled us to provide sponsorship to a number of hospital pharmacists from low-income countries.

The Global Conference steering committee also needs to be thanked upfront for its hard work and effort in developing this event, as do the officers of the FIP Hospital Pharmacy Section for their guidance and support throughout.

A panel of experts has been gathered to serve as facilitators for each of six working groups, each focusing on a different aspect of pharmacy practice in the hospital setting. Let me also thank the facilitators—Eva Ombaka, Lisa Nissen, Rita Shane, Tana Wuliji, Ryozo Oishi and David Cousins—for their hard work. It is the nature of the evidence that they have gathered that will ensure that our deliberations are based on facts, not just our own particular beliefs and prejudices.

As participants, each of you will have an opportunity to contribute to one of the working groups, and we look forward to your involvement in these discussions. Those of you who are officially designated representatives of your countries will have a very specific role in reviewing the consensus statements that emerge from our discussions.

Over the next two days, you will be asked to reflect on the nature of hospital pharmacy practice in your country and work together with your colleagues from around the world to develop a vision for what that practice should be in the future. In order to contextualize these deliberations, the FIP Hospital Pharmacy Section has conducted a survey of global hospital pharmacy practice, the results of which will be presented here for the first time. The support of the FIP Board of Pharmaceutical Practice for this project was key to this endeavour. Many of you have provided the responses for your countries. Responses were received from a total of 84 countries, together representing 82.9% of the world’s population. In addition, we have obtained responses from a range of countries with different levels of development and from every World Health Organization region.

The process will not end here in Basel. The FIP Hospital Pharmacy Section has already started planning the next steps. These include not just the dissemination of the outcomes of this meeting, but academic sessions to be offered at future FIP Congresses in Istanbul (2009) and Lisbon (2010). By joining the FIP Hospital Pharmacy Section, you can be part of this global effort, aimed at ensuring the best possible outcomes from the use of medicines, utilizing the unique skills of hospital pharmacists. I am confident that the results of our work at this historic event will lead to success.

On behalf of the FIP Hospital Pharmacy Section, welcome to Basel and to the Global Conference on the Future of Hospital Pharmacy!

Footnotes

The author has declared no potential conflicts of interest.

Reference

1. Zellmer WA. Perspectives on Hilton Head. Am J Hosp Pharm. 1986; 43:1439–43[Abstract]

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This Article Full Text (PDF) Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Gray, A. L. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Gray, A. L. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?