13th September 2007

School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
University of Central Lancashire

The new School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) welcomes its first intake of undergraduates this month. To celebrate the opening of the new school, an inaugural conference was held in Preston on 13th September. The programme for the day included presentations on the future of pharmacy and pharmacy education, drug delivery technologies, personalised medicine and the use of new IT systems to enhance healthcare delivery in the UK.

The new School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at UCLan was developed to help to address a regional shortage of pharmacists in the North West and it is anticipated that it will become a focal point for pharmacy education in Cumbria and Lancashire, explained the Head of School, Professor Antony D’Emanuele. The innovative MPharm degree course has been designed to equip students with the necessary skills and knowledge to enter the preregistration year, leading to the eventual MRPharmS qualification. This is a time of seismic changes in the profession of pharmacy, commented Professor D’Emanuele and the new course aims to meet the challenges that may be presented by placing equal emphasis on relevant scientific knowledge and elements of professional practice.

Before looking to the future of the profession of pharmacy, David Pruce (Director of Practice and Quality Improvement, Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain) looked back at some of the changes that have occurred in the recent past. About 10 years ago the “Pharmacy in a new age” project stimulated widespread consultation and debate, which resulted in a 10-15 year vision for pharmacy. The key areas highlighted for development included the management of prescribed medicines, long-term conditions and common ailments, the promotion and support of healthy lifestyles and the provision of advice and support for other healthcare professionals. Most of these goals have been achieved and new initiative, “Pharmacy 2020 – Excelling for the Public and the Profession”, to be launched in the next few weeks, will again involve widespread engagement with members of the profession and other stakeholders to understand their vision for pharmacy in the year 2020. Changes in the pharmacist’s role, including independent prescribing, will clearly offer huge opportunities and huge responsibilities. As stated by the Health Minister Andy Burnham at the British Pharmaceutical Conference in 2006, “Pharmacy is now a truly clinical profession”. However, while embracing an enhanced clinical role, we should bear in mind the caveat with which Mr Pruce concluded his presentation – the aim for the profession is to develop “maxi-pharmacists” and not “mini-doctors”!

Appropriate developments in pharmacy education will be essential to enable pharmacists to meet the challenges presented in the future. Damian Day (Head of Accreditation, Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain) discussed the clear messages that have emerged from consultations with academic pharmacists and students. These include the importance of professionalism and the need for integration – especially around the link between the MPharm degree and preregistration training. Pharmacy education must achieve a balance of studies that is both people-centred (practice) and medicines-focused (science). Students have indicated that they often find the science hard but they are willing to accept this provided they can see that it is relevant to practice. Mr Day presented the perceived strengths and weaknesses of the current MPharm courses and considered ways to build on the strengths and address the weaknesses. Further consultations with members of the Academic Pharmacists Group are scheduled during October 2007, to discuss key issues and plan the way forward.

The importance of high quality, relevant science and innovative research for the future of pharmacy was a central message of the conference. Professor Nicholas Peppas (Chair in Chemical and Biomedical Engineering and Pharmaceutics, University of Texas at Austin, USA) commented that the pharmaceutical industry is an important career option for pharmacists and that creativity and innovation in drug delivery and drug discovery can have a tremendous impact on patients’ quality of life. Professor Peppas looked back at the evolution of controlled release drug delivery over the past 30 years, including the use of hydrogel systems such the Geomatrix® and Dome Matrix®. He then considered a range of future technologies for drug delivery, including the development of novel systems that will allow oral delivery of proteins and peptides such as insulin and interferons, and ‘smart systems’, which are designed to maintain drug concentrations in the body at the desired therapeutic level, thus avoiding the need for frequent administration.

Pharmacogenetics is the study of the influence of an individual’s genetic profile on the safety and efficacy of medicines. Pharmacogenomics is the use of genomic information in the discovery of new medicines. Professor William Dawson (Bionet) began his presentation on personalised medicine with some basic definitions and then explained how genetics research can be used to improve patient health, through the development of new and better medicines and getting the right medicine to the right patient. In the short-term future, patient-specific prescribing is likely to be concerned largely with the more effective use of existing medicines; in the medium term we should see more medicines which, like Herceptin® and Glivec®, will target disease-specific genes and gene products, and further ahead new medicines may be derived using genomic science and introduced to patients on the basis of genetic profiling advice. Professor Dawson reminded the audience that as “the only scientist on the high street”, the pharmacist will be ideally placed to offer information and advice on these new developments.

“Connecting for Health”, the national programme of NHS information technology (IT), was discussed by Lindsay McClure (Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee) in the concluding presentation of the day. This programme will include an electronic prescriptions service (EPS), appointment bookings (“Choose and Book”) and health records. EPS is being introduced in a phased roll-out – 52% of pharmacies are now “live” and up to 17% of daily prescriptions are transferred electronically. The benefits of EPS will include safer and more patient-centred care, support for pharmacist’s role enhancement and improved monitoring of medicines, especially new medicines. Pharmacists’ access to and involvement with the NHS Care Records Service and the appointments booking service are still to be fully defined. More information on current and future developments in the NHS IT system is available from the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee and Connecting for Health websites, at http://www.psnc.org.uk/IT and http://www.cfh.nhs.uk, respectively.

The conference attracted an attendance of over 80 participants, including representation from academic, industrial, hospital, community, primary care trust aspects of pharmacy. In addition, the University was delighted to welcome to the conference several students from the new School’s first MPharm intake.