BUILDING STRONGER COMMUNITY PHARMACY FOR ALL SOUTH AFRICANS

UTi Pharma’s sponsorship of Pharmacy Advisory Forum making a difference

Community pharmacies are integral to delivering accessible and affordable healthcare to all South Africans – and the Pharmacy Advisory Forum is helping connect manufacturers, UTi Pharma and community pharmacists across a range of projects and issues that will help make this proposition a reality.

The Forum was established in 1998 to provide an industry platform to bring UTi Pharma’s clients, the majority of research-based pharmaceutical manufacturers and the end-of-line customers, the pharmacists, closer together to share ideas and build a mutually beneficial Pharma distribution service.
 
Regular national and regional workshops are held in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban, and the Forum gives participating retail pharmacies an opportunity to directly interface with UTi Pharma’s operations and its manufacturing client base, make their needs known and and discuss projects in progress or in development under discussion. Participating pharmacists then feedback to other pharmacists in their area, ensuring information flows back and forth from a grassroots level.

The Forum is involved in a wide range of activities, from policy debate and influence to developing education-based initiatives and day-to-day operational improvements in the way business is done.

ePharmaC

The Forum is facilitating the development of an online social community of pharmacists called ePharmaC.

ePharmaC – version 1 is currently being tested – will enable communication and collaboration between independent, community pharmacies. Once fully operational, ePharmaC will strengthen a vibrant and strong community pharmacy network, a goal which is aligned with UTi Pharma’s strategy of delivering affordable and accessible healthcare.

The project was conceptualized after Relenet – which offers highly customizable social network software which enables clients and partners to operate professional social network communities on-demand under their own brand – approached UTi Pharma on developing the project.

ePharmaC is being developed and managed by a small group of independent community pharmacists who are members of the Forum. UTi Pharma is providing financial and advisory support, through the Forum while the longer term plan is that the network will be owned by community pharmacists.

As a communication tool, the network will facilitate loyalty through affiliation, help to influence practices and ensure standardised efforts to achieve common goals. It will also provide a cost effective method of accessing the views of pharmacists, throughout the country, on any issue.

Benefits of membership will include:

• An effective communication channel within the pharmacy community;
• Help with identifying collaboration partners for the transformation of pharmacy (both politically and in the way pharmacy organizes itself to cater for the increased need of pharmaceutical care in a democratic South Africa), outline specific short term strategies to transform the way community pharmacy currently practices and standardize protocols that are easily replicated by each member pharmacy;
• A range of services and tools, which will include:
• Personal health records offering to consumers/patients, and accessible to pharmacy members nationally
• Accredited online continuing education programme that can be accessed by all pharmacists and would include a facility for storing a pharmacist’s continuing education records and points
• Access to online patient medicine therapy (MTM) management programmes
• Contact details of available locums
• Important contact details of medical aids, drug manufacturers, university pharmacy school links and other key industry role players
• Commercial support through information on best possible deals on for independent pharmacy
  

ePharmaC is being driven by Tracy Frank (UTi Pharma), Sham Moodley (Natraj Pharmacy and Pharmacy Advisory Forum), Craig Stevens (Broadway Pharmacy and Pharmacy Advisory Forum).

CE City

Lifetime learning via the internet – through CE City – is on its way for South Africa’s pharmacists, courtesy of UTi Pharma, the Forum and dedicated independent pharmacists led by the IT team of Sham Moodley, Brian Thomas (Prospur Pharmacy), Clifford Daniell (Sedgefield Pharmacy) and Craig Stevens.

The process of bringing CE City to South Africa was conceptualized during a visit to the NCPA in the United States by a group of independent pharmacists hosted by UTi Pharma.

CECity is a leading provider of online CME, QI, and Outcomes platforms and services and is committed to the development of technologies designed to support healthcare professionals in their pursuit of lifetime learning and CME/CE stakeholders in their quest for quality and outcomes.

Founded and managed by healthcare professionals, CECity focuses on healthcare education and professional development solutions. With technology that is designed specifically for healthcare, CECity's processes and applications are fully compliant and meet CME guidelines. CECity offers turnkey solutions for organizations to quickly brand and launch their own online CME/CE and QI initiatives.

A license agreement will exist between ePharmaC and CE City to provide continuing education to South African pharmacists and to those outside of our borders in Africa. The web portal will be able to link directly into the South African Pharmacy Council site to deliver the pharmacist Continuing Education portfolio. The site is expected to be live within the next two months.

Operational benefits

A number of operational improvements are made following discussion at the Forum. Some examples include improvements made to invoicing to make it user-friendly and ongoing improvements to FutureWave.  A test project undertaken by UTi Pharma is currently in place at pharmacy level to look at ways to improve the entire supply chain of fridge items such as insulin.
 
Mirixa

UTi Pharma, the Forum and independent pharmacists led by the Forum’s IT team are working on bringing Mirixa to South Africa, another initiative which was conceptualized on a trip to an NCPA congress by UTi Pharma and independent pharmacists.

MIrixa was founded and is sponsored by the NCPA. It offers technology-enabled, patient care services delivered one-to-one via community pharmacy, and builds on relationships that patients have with local pharmacists. The project focuses on community pharmacists because, the NCPA found, they are:

• Highly trusted by patients and physicians
• Highly accessible
• Clinically trained and administratively competent
• Focused on moving from product dispensing to clinical patient services
• A powerful channel for patient engagement.
  

The team is currently engaged with NCPA and key drivers in Mirixa to ensure that South African pharmacists, like their colleagues in the US and Australia, have access to this advanced technology which is the future of pharmacy worldwide.