Spring 2015

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In this Issue*Meet the Regional Working Group and Subcommittees

* Pan American Regional Symposium 2015

*World Diabetes Day Events

*World AIDS Day Events

*SEP in Taiwan

*....and more!

Meet the Regional Working Group2014-2015 4

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Introduction from the Chairperson of the 9th IPSF Pan American Regional Symposium

Meet the Subcommittees2014-2015

Achieving Universal Health Coverage: Discussion from the 8th Pan American Regional Symposium

IPSF Student Exchange Program in Taiwan

IPSF PARO Newsletter #2Spring 2015

World Diabetes Day Events

World AIDS Day around the Region

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14Designed by Ms. Sara DiTursiPARO Regional Media and Publications Officer

Edited by Ms. Dayl EcclesPARO Secretary

On the CoverTop Right: Students from the University of Alberta (CAPSI), host an event for World Diabetes Day.

Lower Left: Students from Western University of Health Sciences (APhA-USA), form a human red ribbon for World AIDS Day.

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Chairperson of the Pan American Regional Office

Mr. Angel Acosta

Secretary Ms. Dayl Eccles

Regional Media and Publications OfficerMs. Sara DiTursi

Regional Projects OfficerMs. Jessica Zook

Chairperson of the 9th IPSF Pan American Regional SymposiumMr. Jorge A. Schlöttke

Regional Relations OfficerMr. Lucas Ercolin

Translation SubcommitteeEmily Jaynes, APhA-ASP (USA)

Lissette Mellado, CAPSI (Canada)Colleen O’Connell, APhA-ASP (USA)

Elena Schaller, APhA-ASP (USA)Membership Promotion Subcommittee

Chanmee Park, APhA-ASP (USA)Sheena Patel, APhA-ASP (USA)

Public Health Project Sub-CoordinatorsPublic Health Series – Juan Camilo Enciso Beltran, ACEQF (Colombia)

Vampire Cup – Luiza de Oliveira Mota, CACIF (Brazil)Diabetes and Healthy Living – Ifeoma Ibe, APhA-ASP (USA)

Website Development Sub-CoordinatorGrace Chun, APhA-ASP (USA)

PARO Subcommittees 2014-2015

9th IPSF Pan American Regional SymposiumARGENTINA – 2015

Knowledge and commitment: baseline to get results in public healthTHE MOST “GAUCHO” IPSF EVENT EVER!

Dear student pharmacists and recent gradu-ates,

Beginning to talk about the 9th IPSF PARS is not an easy job; I don’t know where to start!

For some history on PARS, it all started in 2002 with the founding of the Pan American Regional Office. The first PARS took place in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in the United States.

IPSF-PARS is the biggest event in the region, and is the only meeting we have outside of the global IPSF World Congress. Each region holds their own Symposium, and being a member of PARO that makes PARS very rele-vant to every one of us!

Our region has had many notable people in-volved in IPSF for a long part of IPSF’s history. Some examples of our roots:

•1959: Mr. Glein Moir from Canada, who was the first IPSF President from our region.•1973, Paris: Mr. Carlos J Lopez from Mexico, who was the first Latin American Participant in a World Congress, where he was designated IPSF Commissioner for the Latin American Region.•1989: Mr. Eric Anderson from the USA served as President of IPSF.•2001: Leonard Plain from the USA served as President of IPSF.

And what about IPSF events? Our continent has hosted a number of relevant events for IPSF, such as:

•1977: 23rd World Congress - Mexico•1986: 32nd World Congress - Panama•1989: 35th World Congress - USA

•1994: 40th World Congress - Honduras•1997: 43rd World Congress - Canada•2000: 46th World Congress - San Salvador•2004: 50th World Congress - Canada

Since the founding of the Regional Office, we have held many of our own events:

•2002: 1st PARS - USA•2003: 2nd PARS - Mexico•2004: 3rd PARS - Panama •2005: 4th PARS - Jamaica•2006: 5th PARS - Ecuador•2007: 6th PARS – Costa Rica•2008: 7th PARS – Mexico•2012: Pharmatour – Colombia•2014: 8th PARS – Brazil

As you can appreciate, our history is really exciting. Influential people helped our conti-nent to become involved in IPSF and also held big events attended by those in our continent. For this reason we are very committed and we want make an unforgettable event for you.

The 9th IPSF Pan American Regional Sym-posium will be held in San Luis, a province in the center of Argentina where the climate is balanced all the yearlong with an average annual temperature of 17ºC. The maximum temperature is 33ºC and the minimum tem-perature 3ºC. The scenery of this area includes mountains with different shapes, heights and, among them, Great Plains and numerous lakes.

The Symposium will be between June 16th and 22nd. The activities that we are organizing for you are very exciting! A lot of opportuni-ties are waiting for you, including conferences, workshops, a public health campaign, industry

visits, compounding, Leaders in Training activ-ities, social events, Argentinean day, and more!

The registration fee includes:

•Accommodation for 6 days (June 16-22nd)•Lunch for 5 days•Opening ceremony dinner•Dinner for 4 days•Gala Night dinner•Coffee breaks during events•Argentine Day•Entrance to all 4 social events

•Materials for the symposiaThe registration periods are:

•5th of January - 5th of April: €270.00•6th of April -. 6th of May: €320.00•7th of May - 7th of June: €350.00

If you have any suggestions or questions about the symposia, do not hesitate to contact the Reception Committee at pars@paro.ipsf.org.

Keep calm, and come to the most “GAUCHO” IPSF event ever!

By Jorge SchlöttkeChairperson of the 9th IPSF Pan American Regional Symposium2014-2015

Achieving Universal Health Coverage: Discussion from the 8th Pan American Regional Symposium

“I decided to go to Great Britain to find out how a hospital can be free and drugs can cost only 10 dollars.”

– Sicko (2007)

At the 8th IPSF Pan American Regional Symposium, after watching a movie called Sicko, from Michael Moore, the first question raised was about the cost of health. For all the students at the time, paying for health is a reality.

While paying for health is a reality for stu-dents, some countries do not have their citi-zens in the same situation as Great Britian or share the idea of “health as a peoples’ right, and a state’s obligation” to provide low or no cost care to the population and, sometimes, even to foreigners.

The world has three ideologies related to how to provide health. The first is independent health financing; this allows the patient, or customer, to be fully responsible for their individual health. The second is Universal Health Coverage, which the World Health Organisation defines the goal as “to ensure that all people obtain health services they need without financial hardship when paying for them.” And the third is socialized medi-cine, a form of universal health coverage that sees the health of the population as part of the state’s work by paying for care through taxes.

We can see those ideologies as either free market, without state interference, or as state-driven with the state taking on the full responsibility for health. The government can decide which we should have, and it is debat-

able which one has better health outcomes.

Leaving health to the free market, as was done in the United States starting in the 1970s with President Richard Nixon’s The National Health Insurance Partnership Act and The Health Maintenance Organisation Assistance Act, was intended to accomplish the goals of affordable care for all citizens. However, this has resulted in a complex situ-ation where only those who have money will pay for and sometimes receive healthcare. Providers also are reimbursed on the amount of procedures provided and not the quality of care, and insurance companies preferen-tially provided insurance to those who do not need to take advantage of health services. This allowed private insurance companies to profit, and if the disease led to monetary loss of the healthcare facility, the treatment may be denied.

The state may serve as a regulator market, defining the legality of prices and forbidding unfair practices of health providers. Never-theless, lobbyists and corruption may be an issue, because politicians may receive money from business enterprises, which can make their political opinions biased. Corruption can appear in any market with paying an inspector to unsee any issues, to directly cor-rupting politicians. The other possibility for the state to achieve Universal Health Cover-age is to subsidize the cost of care in part or in whole.

Socialized medicine is another extreme, where the responsibility of the cost is taken from the individual or enterprises, and is subsidized completely by the state. This is not free care, because the funding is provided by taxes prior to the need for assistance. The en-tire society will pay for the health of all, even

for those who cannot contribute financially. Corruption can then come from fully within the state, without interference from outside enterprises.

Accepting the free market model as the best option for a society to provide health implies that a part of the society will have no access to any level of care, and that complex treat-ments may bankrupt even those that were not poor in the first place. With a variety of options to find treatment, there is a chance that competition will drive down the cost of care. Providers may also have little space to improve salary or job conditions because this can affect the profit of the enterprises, and there are little monetary incentives to im-prove these conditions.

As health providers, we may have a life that allows us more luxury with a higher salary,

but what is the cost? Is our luxury fair if it comes at the cost of poverty and sickness of a certain sector of the population?

Socialized medicine also has costs and bene-fits to us directly. If the only employer is the state, there is very little room to seek better salary or job conditions. In these countries, strikes and demonstrations may be the only way to improve quality. This, however, can lead to police brutality, arrests, and even demission. Healthcare quality may also be poorer as a whole; however, that is not the rule. Health, overall, will be provided to the entire population.

These topics were discussed at the 8th Pan American Regional Symposium in Brasil in 2014. Which position do you have?

By Lucas ErcolinPARO Regional Relations Officer2014-2015

Experiencing Pharmacy Practice in Taiwan

This past summer, I was delighted to repre-sent APhA-ASP (USA) in the IPSF Student Exchange Program (SEP). Choosing countries in which to apply to was difficult, but I wanted to step outside my comfort zone and I chose Taiwan, a completely new place for me very far from home (about a 16 hour flight from my home in New York!). I was eager to learn all that I could from the program and time in Taiwan. I was placed in an independent community pharmacy, Pu Cheng Pharmacy, for 4 weeks. The SEP program was organized by a group of wonderful, welcoming students at Taipei Medical University (TMU).

The community pharmacy I was placed in was

about a 1 hour commute from the school dor-mitory. The pharmacists and staff at the phar-macy were very welcoming, and the pharmacy manager, Mr. Huang, was eager to teach us all about pharmacy practice in Taiwan. Myself and another student from APhA-ASP aided in preparing and dispensing medications (the prescriptions and labels were in both English and Traditional Chinese although many of the medication brand names are different than in the United States!) and had a mini-lesson each afternoon on a class of drugs or Chinese medicine. We also learned how to counsel on how to take a blood pressure in Mandarin and learned some useful phrases in Mandarin We also would discuss with the pharmacists what

Edited by Dayl EcclesPARO Secretary2014-2015

some differences were in pharmacy practice between the two countries. We also took field trips to other locations of the pharmacy: a nursing home to which the pharmacy delivers

medications, and a presentation at a camp for children from single parent homes. The phar-macists also introduced us to many Taiwanese foods when lunch was ordered each day. An-other unique aspect of Pu Cheng Pharmacy was that it is know for being the only pharma-cy in Taipei that also sells organic vegetables. This is just one way the pharmacists there influence the overall health of their patients.

Another highlight of my time in Taiwan was attending the Good Pharmacy Practice Con-ference, which was put on by the Asia Pacific Regional Office of IPSF. I learned a great deal from the conference and from the other phar-macy students and pharmacists who attended the conference. We also had the opportunity to visit the National Health Insurance Admin-istration and Taipei Veterans Medical Center to gain further insight into different areas of pharmacy practice in Taiwan.

Pharmacy practice differs significantly from the United States in that Taiwan has a well established National Health Insurance system. The bulk of the dispensing of medications is performed in the hospital rather than in com-munity pharmacies, as in the United States. The workload on hospital pharmacists is quite large in Taiwan because pharmacy techni-cians are not utilized and because of the sheer prescription volume that the pharmacy expe-riences on a daily basis. Since healthcare is of-fered for a very low copay, the hospitals cater to a larger number of patients as compared

with the United States. The hospital offers clinical services that are similar to hospitals in the United States such as medication thera-py management and pharmacist-run clinics. Currently in Taiwan, a Bachelor’s degree is required for new pharmacists, however, there are Master’s and PhD programs to further hone the clinical skills of newly trained phar-macists. Many pharmacists in Taiwan that are interested in clinical pharmacy choose to complete their PharmD degree in the United States.

Of course, besides working in the pharmacy, the students at TMU showed myself and the other SEP students many beautiful sights in Taiwan such as nightmarkets, temples, shop-ping and trying many types of Taiwanese cuisine! Because of the great students at TMU, I experienced many things that Taiwan has to offer.

The SEP Program in Taiwan and internship at Pu Cheng Pharmacy was an extremely eye-opening experience, changing my out-look on the pharmacy profession and the role pharmacists play in patient care. I also formed friendships with many other student pharma-cists who are also passionate about IPSF.

By Sara DiTursiPARO Regional Media and Publications Officer2014-2015

A Blue Day

On November 14th of every year, phar-macists, patients, doctors, and many other healthcare and non-healthcare workers join together to create a day of awareness for diabetes. For the past few years, IPSF has been joining in on the World Diabetes Day activities and spreading awareness to pharmacy stu-dents and patients all around the globe. One key component of living a healthy life with diabetes is eating a healthy and balanced diet. This year, the Inter-national Diabetes Federation focused on the theme “Go Blue For Breakfast” to promote healthy eating.

PARO started out the month of Novem-ber by promoting the Blue Monument Challenge, in which people can choose a local monument to light up on World Diabetes Day in order to increase awareness about diabetes. In the week leading up to November 14th, PARO posted four healthy breakfast recipes from around our region which can be found on the PARO Facebook site:

-Spinach, Tomato and Feta Cheese Baked Egg -Banana Smoothie -Spanish Tortilla -Egg and Avocado Toast

On World Diabetes Day, IPSF Pharmacy Students joined people from all over the world in raising diabetes awareness by using the International Diabetes Federation “Selfie App.” Students posted pictures of themselves wearing blue, or eating a healthy breakfast with the classic blue circle logo of World Diabe-tes Day. Thank you to everyone in PARO who helped to increase awareness about World Diabetes Day and the im-portance of eating healthy food!

By Jessica ZookPARO Regional Projects Officer2014-2015

World Diabetes Day at the University of Alberta

On November 14th, World Di-abetes Day, I hosted an Eating Competition for Diabetes Aware-ness at the University of Alberta. I know this seems contradictory to the cause, but I thought it would generate more attention that way! The turn-out to the event was excellent – students from all years, including B.S. and PharmD students, showed up to cheer on their fellow classmates.

I did a short presentation at the start of the event, getting ev-eryone on the same page about why World Diabetes Day is important and relevant, some common patient misconceptions, and ways to assess diabetes risk such as the Blue Circle Test.For the competition, we had eight teams of three students compete against each other. Each person was expected to eat three food items from the healthy eating diabetes pre-

vention food list, as recommended by the Canadian Diabetes Association: person 1 was responsible for beans, tomatoes, sweet potatoes; person 2 was responsible for non-fat milk, whole wheat bread, spinach; person 3 was responsible for canned tuna, oranges, and corn). Because a little friendly competition is healthy, the winning team received coffee shop gift cards.

There was participation from all years, including the Bachelor’s and PharmD pro-grams – it turned out to be a great event for all the years to get together!

By Phoebe HsuIPSF RepresentativeAlberta Pharmacy Students’ Association (CAPSI)Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical SciencesUniversity of Alberta

And the winners are....!

How am I going to eat all this food??

World AIDS DayDecember 1st, 2014

World AIDS Day was promoted by student phar-macists all throughout the Pan American Region of IPSF on December 1st. Below are just a few of the initiatives that student pharmacists around the region promoted during this public health

campaign.

Western University of Health Sciences (APhA-ASP, USA) celebrated World AIDS Day by encouraging students to wear red. Student pharmacists also

formed a human red ribbon.

Students at Univ. Nacional de San Luis (AEFRA, Ar-gentina), distributed information about HIV/AIDS and offered the instant HIV test, of which had over

64 participants.

Students from University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Scienc-es (APhA-ASP, USA) hosted a guest speaker from the Colorado Harm Reduction Action Center who spoke on HIV stigma and needle exchange. The student pharmacists sold red ribbons and the proceeds were donated to the National AIDS Trust. Students were also encouraged to wear red, and posted fliers with HIV/AIDS facts around

their campus.

Students at Rutgers University (APhA-ASP, USA) held a bake sale and promoted awareness about HIV/AIDS. Proceeds from the bake sale were do-

nated to a local AIDS foundation.

World AIDS DayDecember 1st, 2014

Students at the University of Washington School of Pharmacy (APhA-ASP, USA) formed a human ribbon and passed out buttons to all participants. Students also made and sold red ribbon key

chains and raised over $100 to donate.

In support of the HIV/AIDS Awareness Campaign, the IPSF Committee of Notre Dame Chapter (APhA-ASP, USA) hosted their annual educational event that consisted of SOP students and faculty presenting informative materials. This year, they had the opportunity to hear from an HIV-positive speaker as well as see a mobile HIV testing van. We want to say a special thanks to the Women Accepting Responsibility Organization (WAR) and

our strong and inspiring speaker.

Newsletter #2Spring 2015

Designed by

Ms. Sara DiTursiPARO Regional Media and

Publications Officer

Edited by

Ms. Dayl EcclesPARO Secretary