August 7, 2008
Consortium to help reshape Thai pharmacy practices
greets Bung-orn Sripanidkulchai, dean of the Khon Kaen University
College of Pharmacy, left. At right is Motoko Kanke, a pioneer in Japanese
pharmacy education and longtime collaborator with the UW School
of Pharmacy on international pharmacy exchange efforts.
By Melinda Young
School of Pharmacy
The UW School of Pharmacy recently joined a group that is helping transform the pharmacy system in Thailand. In July, it became a member of the U.S.-Thai Consortium for the Development of Pharmacy Education.
Originally created by the Royal Thai Government in 1994, the consortium began, in part, to respond to a pharmacist shortage in that nation. Nine United States pharmacy schools joined eight Thai pharmacy schools in the original agreement, setting out to strengthen the practice and education of pharmacists in Thailand.
Since the consortium was formed, select Thai pharmacy faculty have pursued advanced professional or graduate study in U.S. pharmacy schools. And multiple student and faculty exchanges, guest lectures, research projects, and collaborations have taken place.
Through such efforts, members of the consortium have helped in a nationwide effort in Thailand to enhance academic, research and clinical pharmacy programs for scholars and practitioners. They have helped expand the number of pharmacy schools in Thailand. And they’ve helped implement Pharm.D. programs at universities that previously only had bachelor’s equivalents.
The program has been such a success that last month, the Thai government extended it through 2022 and invited more institutions to join.
At the consortium’s biennial meeting at the University of Wisconsin- Madison, the UW joined four other U.S. schools and one Thai school as new members of the consortium. Clinical Associate Professor of Pharmaceutics Suzanne Lee was on hand for the signing of the contract.
When asked about the consortium’s impact, Lee emphasized that it is helping to modernize pharmacy practice in Thailand. Indeed, the entire Thai system is undergoing a structural shift — from a model focused on filling prescriptions to one that incorporates patient care and advocacy into the mix.
“[Academics in Thailand] would like pharmacists to be more on the front lines of drug-therapy management,” Lee said. “They want to be involved in teaching people about drugs, educating nursing and medical staffs, helping manage adverse effects of drugs and working on public health efforts.”
This is the direction that U.S. pharmacy education and practice has been going for some years now. And this is where the insight and expertise of academics and students at institutions such as the UW can play an important role.
The consortium also allows U.S. students and faculty to gain an international perspective on the practice of pharmacy.
To be sure, said School of Pharmacy Dean Sid Nelson, “in a more global society, it’s imperative that we learn about how other cultures practice to help us improve our own [pharmacy] systems.”
The school will kick off its involvement in the consortium by implementing a student educational exchange with Khon Kaen University in the northeast region of Isan. Lee visited there in January to help set up the program.
The UW School of Pharmacy is the only West Coast pharmacy school involved in this consortium.
