AstraZeneca launches up-skilling pharmacists’ programme 'iPHARMACY'

Bengaluru: AstraZeneca India on Wednesday announced the launch iPHARMACY an up-skilling programme for pharmacists. The programme will focus on inventory management, good pharmacy practices, customisation of pharmacy for patients of future, and management of pharmacy during covid. The content and modules for this programme are created by the team of experts from AstraZeneca and their partners, which will equip the pharmacists across India to provide standardised and quality counselling, and support to the people.

Starting in Kerala, as the first step, they have partnered with Neethi, a Kerala state cooperative consumers federation limited company. For the next step, the company is planning to collaborate with large pharma-retail chains from across India to expand this programme further to other parts of the country.

Commenting on the initiative, Dr Anil Kukreja, Vice President- Medical Affairs and Regulatory, AstraZeneca India, said “Pharmacists being one of the major pillars of the healthcare system play a very critical role in enabling patients to understand a disease and medications for that. By understanding that, we have partnered with a leading cooperative pharmacy chain in Kerala, Neethi Medical Stores, to educate and upgrade the knowledge of pharmacists for better patient outcomes. Through this initiative, we are trying to bridge the knowledge gap that exists at the point of care for patients. The curriculum of this programme is carefully designed to enable pharmacists to deliver essential support services and standardised counselling for patients.”

AstraZeneca India has chosen Moodle as the learning platform to run this course. The entirety of the course module will take place digitally. The pre-requisite for every participant would be to register themselves, and subsequently a unique credential would be created for every individual to run the course. This e-learning mobile compatible programme has four modules which can be completed at ones' own pace. The programme will remain active till end of this year for the pharmacists from Neethi. The course can be completed within this time period, further to which each student will be awarded a completion certificate by European body of CME/CPD Academy. The total number of participants from Neethi at this phase would be around 200.

Commenting on the partnership, M Salim, MD, Kerala State Co-Operatives Consumers’ Federation LTD. Undertaking by Government of Kerala, said “We are thankful to AstraZeneca for supporting the patient community in Kerala, by up-skilling our pharmacists. The up-skilling of pharmacists will bring instant and long-lasting benefits to the healthcare system. Having highly qualified pharmacists to optimise medication therapy management will improve acute care in a healthcare setting. This will also improve patient’s morale and likeliness to follow prescribed treatment.”