Scope of Pharmacy Education-Dr. Revikumar KG.

EMERGING TRENDS IN PHARMACY EDUCATION  AND   PHARM.D

                                                                    Dr. Revikumar KG.

                                                                 Principal,

                                                  Amrita School of Pharmacy,

                                             Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
University,

                                                     AIMS Healthcare Campus,

                               Kochi, Kerala,

          India: 682026.

To the surprise of many pharmacy professionals,  a  pharmacy program of study leading to the professional degree, Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.), was initiated in the University of California at  San Francisco, USA  in 1955.  The program faced lot of resistance from among  a section of pharmacy professionals in the subsequent years also.   It took nearly thirty years for the authorities in US to adopt Pharm D as a national professional degree  program. By the beginning  of  1990s, the AACP and the American pharmacy professional organisations jointly  took an unanimous   decision to make Pharm D as the minimum requirment for practice of Pharmacy in their  country.  This  has positively  influenced the pharmacy educational institutions and authorities  through out the world to take proper precautions at their countries.   All the Western / European countries rose to the occasion and took timely decisions to introduce PharmD.   Interestigly institutions  in the  middle- east countries like Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and  Egypt too   started 5 year PharmD  degree courses. Our neighbor nation  Pakistan upgraded their four degree to the five year  Pharm.D in all their  institutions.  

Today  pharmacy education and practice is at  crossroads in India. It is  facing numerous challenges that need to be addressed at this stage.   After the FPGEC (Foreign Pharmacy Graduation Equivalency Committee) in US mandated a 5 year pharmacy Graduation programme to be eligible to take the FPGEE (Foreign Pharmacy Graduation Equivalency Examination), pharmacist from South Asian countries including India have got upset. This had put many Indian Bachelor of Pharmacy graduates (4year course), who had gone to the US, in quandary. After much delay,  some  authorities in India has now agreed to introduce the Pharm D.  The Government of India agreed to  the proposals put up by the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) for introducing a six year Pharm.D and three year Pharm.D ( Post baccalaureate) Course in India.

Currently, pharmacy  graduates ( B.Pharm)  from India  are not eligible  to take up jobs as practising  pharmacists in  other countries, particularly the western countries where PharmD  has become the professional degree for practice of Pharmacy.  The  six year Pharm.D programme and three year Post-Baccalaureate Pharm D  in the country  can help in bringing pharmacy education on par with other  countries. 

 Curriculum for the Pharm D  course as is finalized by the PCI  may have to change drastically in due course.  The current syllabus of the Pharm D   include regular Pharmacy subjects  along with  exposure in clinical pharmacy practices (Hospital rounds and partial clinical training in 4^th & 5^th year and complete 1 year training in the hospital in last year of the course).  The major practice oriented  subjects   include Clinical pharmacy, Clinical toxicology, Clinical pharmacokinetics, Therapeutic drug monitoring, Pharmacoepidemiology and  Biopharmaceutics.  Those who have completed their B.Pharm (Bachelor of Pharmacy) course can  pursue the three year Pharm.D (Post Baccalaureate) course.

A central  gazette notification to introduce PharmD  in India was   issued in May 2008 by the  ministry, Government of India  for starting this course in the pharmacy institutions. The  pharmacy colleges in the country have to  fulfil the parameters set by the PCI like  qualified faculty, spacious and quality labs, enough space to accommodate additional students, etc along with hospital facility (300 bed hospital) .   Other major prerequisites for starting the Pharm.D course include  proper teaching facilities  and building.   Some of the leading universities and institution in the country have already initiated activities  to start  PharmD.  The University Grants Commission (UGC) has sanctioned Rs 50 lakh to Annamalai University in Tamil Nadu to start PharmD program.  

The PCI had recently invited  applications  for  starting PharmD in India. Though it was done in a hasty manner,  they had received about   46 applications for the PharmD course. ( AP 15, Karnataka 11, T.N 8, Kerala, Maharashtra, MP and Orissa ).  The PCI  had  already  approved 22 colleges in the country to start PharmD course from the  academic year 2008- 09.   It is in this background that we are discussing the   ‘Emerging trends in Pharmacy Education and  the PharmD program at the national and international level examining its  various aspects.

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