The role of science, practice and education in building capacity for pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences

Abstract

Capacity building involves development of human and institutional resources by enhancing individual skills and strengthening organisational competence to perform specific tasks more effectively. The topic of capacity building in healthcare is gaining more dominance in policy discourses on international development, mostly driven by the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To meet these goals, capacity building in pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences remains a challenge – one where pharmaceutical science, practice and education can make a difference if used synergically and to their full potential.

In her thesis, Zuzana Kusynová assessed the optimal role of science, practice and education in building capacity for pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences while considering the ultimate goal of addressing the health needs worldwide. Current realities in all these three elements, outlining trends, anticipating various scenarios, and exploring unconventional interventions, can enhance the readiness to augment capacity building.

Pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences and the roles they serve to the society are constantly evolving. Our longitudinal study found pharmacists’ roles advancing towards patient-centred clinical focus and positioning pharmacy as an important player in the health-care system. Pharmaceutical scientists, too, and as highlighted by our research, they see themselves as being driven by continuous demands of unmet medical need. Education needs to constantly keep up with these evolutions. The thesis gave insight into the adaptation of pharmaceutical education to new practice paradigms in light of medical needs or health threats, such as substandard and falsified (SF) medical products. When surveying schools of pharmacy around the world, one third (33%) did not teach about this subject. These insights helped us identify the gaps and inform the curriculum needed. Indeed, gaps can be closed by learning from success stories, and this thesis presented how a pilot course for undergraduate pharmacy students improved students’ knowledge on SF medical products. These findings encourage further full implementation of this course in existing curricula beyond the pilot. Building capacity in health systems by empowering all pharmacists to intervene can help protect communities from SF medical products. Long-term, yet adaptable capacity building requires logical frameworks amid unpredictable factors. Analyses leading to logical frameworks facilitate depicting alternative stories to take into account. This thesis presents a scenario analysis for the future of medicines and social policy in 2030, describing four contrasting portraits of the future which may be used for strengthening preparedness for crucial challenges ahead. The pharmaceutical community and health policy makers can then take a long term view and make reasoned judgements about what capacity will need to be built.

In conclusion, the roles of pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists are transforming, and education must keep up with these for ensuring optimal capacity. Professional bodies, policy makers, funding institutions, workforce planning regulators, and other stakeholders should join in these efforts. Their collective goal is then to strengthen the intertwined roles of pharmaceutical science, practice and education, with the ultimate goal to swiftly respond to the ever-shifting global societal health needs.