NEWS BITS 2019

PCHRD Supports Local Medical Device Development

The Philippine Council of Health Research and Development (PCHRD) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) reiterates the support of the office in the development of local medical devices last March 15, 2019 at the Philippine International Convention Center on the 37^th anniversary of the PCHRD themed “International Conference on Health Research and Industry 4.0”

A breakout session for the development of medical devices was held where mostly representatives from the industry and academe attended. The forum involves talk on how other countries were able to develop their local medical devices like that in Singapore and how the Indian economy encourages development of local medical device industry, on top of medical device discovery and development presentations. There were a lot of regulatory questions raised but there was no invitation to PAMDRAP and most of those questions remained unanswered. A PCHRD research grant on “Hospital Equipment and Biomedical Devices” has been available for some time to enhance global competitiveness and innovation in the Philippines which is a priority under the National Unified Health Research Agenda (NUHRA). Visit PCHRD website for details.

PPhA at 99 and Kick off for the Centennial

          Last August 29, 2019 at the Manila Hotel at around 1PM, the 99^th celebration of the founding of the Philippine Pharmacists Association was held and this marks the year long celebration onwards the centennial year. The celebration started with a reminiscing of the passing years of PPhA by the senior members, awarding of the past PPhA presidents followed; Olivia Limuaco PhD, Leonila Ocampo MSc and Norma lerma ScD were recipients of the award. At the conclusion of the event, launching of the centennial logo, mascot, song and jingle took place. Long live PPhA!

Medical Device and Regulatory Affairs Subjects in the Revised BS Pharmacy Curriculum

          The revised BS Pharmacy curriculum draft has been unofficially released during the evaluation by the stake holders but the final document has not been approved by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). At around 2016, a 5-year BS Pharmacy curriculum has been envisioned by the Filipino key opinion leaders in Pharmacy but it was reverted back to a 4-year curriculum after worries of loosing enrollees by many of the member schools/universities of the Philippine Association of the Colleges of Pharmacy (PACOP). The current draft of the curriculum includes a Medical Device suffix added to the Drug Delivery Systems, calling the subject “Pharmaceutical Dosage Forms, Drug Delivery Systems and Medical Devices”. The internship areas has also been widen to 5 from 3 areas and one of the areas added is Regulatory Affairs, a separate CHED memorandum order though will be released soon for the BS Pharmacy internship guidelines.

PUSHING FOR MINAMATA RATIFICATION IN THE PHILIPPINES

The main office of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) together with the United Nations Industrial Department Organization UNIDO) held a validation workshop for the National Action Plan for the Phase-out of Mercury-Added Products and the Sound Management of Mercury-Containing Wastes last June 4, 2019 from 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM at the United Nations Philippines Office, 14^th Floor, North Tower, Rockwell Business Center Sheridan, corner United and Sheridan streets, Mandaluyong City. The event aimed to polish the proposed policies, strengthen the capacities, clarify the quality data and evidence, map-out the implementation and innovation involved and promote partnership and advocacy to ultimately ratify and implement the Minamata Convention on Mercury.

The Minamata Convention is an international treaty comprise of almost 140 countries including the Philippines which aims to protect human health and the environment from anthropogenic emissions and release of mercury and mercury compounds. Last October 2013, the treaty was adopted and signed after 3 years of negotiation among countries. As of April 2019, 109 countries already ratified and the Philippines is yet to do so. The validation workshop started with a welcome remarks from Ms. Tonilyn P. Lim, the Country Representative of UNIDO. Engr. Vizminda A. Osorio, the Assistant Director of DENR-EMB also gave her opening remarks. Both of these talks presented the efforts of the Philippines in Mercury Phase-out including the activities and outputs of the Inter-Agency Technical Working Group (IATWG) comprising of the DENR, Department of Health (DOH) & Food and Drug Administration (FDA) , Department of Labor and Employment - Occupational Safety and Health (DOLE-OSH), Department of Foreign Affairs – Bureau of Customs (DFA-BoC), Department of Energy (DoE), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Science and Technology (DOST), Department of Agriculture – Fertilizer and Pesticides Authority (DA-FPA), Department of Education (DepEd), Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and Civil Societies Organization (CSO). Mr. Teddy G. Monroy, the Project Coordinator of the mercury phase-out in the Philippines at UNIDO recap the importance of the ratification through a comprehensive presentation of the background, diseases, prevention, statistics and updates related to mercury. The workshop was later facilitated by Ms. Haidee Penero of UNIDO where the specific activities for the mercury phase-out were divided among the participants into 4 groups. These groups are the policy group, capacities and quality data/evidence group, innovation and implementation group and partnerships and advocacy group. The outputs where later presented. Notable concerns include budgeting issues for implementation, Bureau of Customs problems which drew a lot of attention, development of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and monitoring of the implementation.

Stakeholders from the business sector were also invited during the event as products including medical devices may contain mercury and be greatly affected. These products include dental amalgams, thermometers, barometers and spymomanometers, although most of these are already phased-out voluntarily by medical device companies. More importantly, it was also emphasized that products without any suitable replacement for its mercury component may still be retained but subject to regulatory controls by the designated government office/s. Other stakeholders present include Samahan sa Pilipinas ng Industriyang kemikal, Chamber of Cosmetics Industry, Philippine Dental Association (PDA), Philippine Hospital Association (PHA), Philippine Center or Creative Imaging (PCCI) and PAMDRAP led by Charmaine Roson of Kimberly Clark. This efforts of validating the National Action Plan aims to ultimately phase-out mercury-added products and regulate mercury residues by 2020.

LEARNING MORE OF MYSELF FROM THE LUMAD BAKWIT SCHOOL EXPERIENCE

These days I like to stay at home every weekend if not travelling to a nearby touristy place to keep myself happy and busy. I was not usually like this until early this year when a good friend of mine invited me to volunteer in the Lumad Bakwit School, a primary school for children that are currently doing their best and sacrificing time with their family to finish school far from their home town in Mindanao that is continually torn by violence. Lumad Bakwit School is a mobile school reliant on help from different organizations and volunteers and it was located at the University of the Philippines in Diliman for the last half of the last school year where I volunteered for approximately 3 months. I initially volunteered to spend more time with my friend that will soon leave the same company I am currently connected and I also thought that I haven’t been volunteering for a while which is one thing that keeps me happy when I was younger. Moreover, I was assigned to teach Horticulture to Grade 11 students every Sunday which is a subject matter I really love (and nobody wants to teach!) having thought College Botany for over a decade so I thought it would be a wonderful experience and I was right.

Younger people deprived of a comfortable life may have less chances of getting good education and while I think that it is still the truth, I can see how these youngsters work hard to educate themselves that they may be able to help their community in the future, as what they always say. Realization of ones responsibility by this kids is just too early for me because if I can remember clearly, I was still doing and thinking of very lame things back when I was at their age. I always find talking to these Lumad students more sensibly than the average kid who lives a comfortable life and It is just so amazing how big their dreams are and how much they could do if they are guided properly in their education. Having thought in the big universities in Manila, I can clearly compare them to my past and present students whom their parents can afford the very high tuition fees charged by these big universities and I can clearly say without any doubt that if these kids are given the same opportunity they would be able to achieve more. Surprising, right? Unfortunately, they are born in a lesser economic status. It made me realize that while some of my students back at the university waste their parent’s money by enrolling and eventually failing and going to school without any plan to graduate, there are some poor kids that are trying to get their education whatever way they can so they can help themselves and their family which is not only righteous but also very heroic. So I never fail to talk to my students in the university about this these days to hopefully inspire them and make them realize how privileged they are.

Teaching at Bakwit School also made me realize that there are still so many people with kind hearts out there that wants to make a difference in this world. I can see donations coming, I can see time given by the volunteers not only for teaching but some volunteer for administrative purposes and others volunteer in doing household chores particularly to feed the children and I can also see so many organizations both from the government and non-government ends , trying to reach out and help in the delivery of education for these kids. There is just too much love, I can sometimes see it overflow no matter how much negativity one can read and see in the media. Love is different, you have to experience it as in Bakwit School and not observe. As a kid, I wasn’t very much exposed to charity but surprisingly me and my youngest brother grew up to be continually looking for ways to help other people and the feeling of validation that what we are doing is right, drives me to do even more to contribute more.

On the other hand, the experience also thought me that these Lumad Bakwit School children are clearly - still children… and that they are vulnerable. They need to be protected and they need to be placed in the hands that will always carry their best interest which is to finish their education and I am very grateful for the help so far that they have received. I usually just enjoy my days during weekends since I finished volunteering at the Lumad Bakwit School. I used to bring a lot of office work at home to impress my bosses to move quickly to the top of the corporate ladder but after volunteering, I intend to notice and later on enjoy the blessings that God gave me. I am more grateful for what I have so I travel to appreciate more of life and if I stay at home, I work on my other advocacies like pediatric cancer patients, animal rights and lately I have been planning to take part of counseling Patients Living with HIV (PLHIV). I went to the Lumad Bakwit School to volunteer onwards helping children in their education but the experience gave me so much more in return making me a better person.

STRENGHTENING THE HEALTH ECONOMICS & OUTCOMES RESEARCH COMPONENT OF THE PHILIPPINE BS PHARMACY CURRICULUM

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) in the Philippines in cooperation with the Philippine Association of the Colleges of Pharmacy (PACOP) gave the draft of the CHED Memorandum Order (CMO) on the Policies Standards and Guidelines for Pharmacy Education last May 22, 2018 to the different schools of Pharmacy in the Philippines. This is still the latest update on the tentative curriculum of the 4-year BS Pharmacy program to date. This draft was made possible after a series of general assembly of the different pharmacy schools in the country and stake holders consultations in different practice areas, this was headed by the PACOP President, Prof. Dr. Aleth Therese L. Dacanay of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) with the guidance of the Board of Pharmacy, CHED. The revision of the curriculum includes addition of 2 units of Health Technology Assessment and Health Policy (with Pharmacoeconomics) at the 2^nd semester of the 3^rd year of the program which is not part of the old BS Pharmacy curriculum – CHED CMO 3 series of 2006.

Among all the subjects though – old, new and revised in the curriculum draft, it is only the Health Technology Assessment and Health Policy (with Pharmacoeconomics) subject that does not have any syllabus draft. Other subjects in the latest draft that supports HEOR are Public Health Pharmacy (with Pharmacoepidemiology) that weighs 3 units, Pharmaceutical Marketing and Entrepreneurship that weighs 2 units and Social and Administrative Pharmacy that weighs a unit. Public Health Pharmacy (with Pharmacoepidemiology) includes topics on basic epidemiology, Pharmacists immunization and local health delivery system. Pharmaceutical Marketing and Entrepreneurship includes topics on healthcare as business, basic marketing and its management and community pharmacy entrepreneurship focus. Social and Administrative Pharmacy includes topics on sociology as related to pharmacy, managed care and a basic research on the subject matter.

The current draft is a revision from the previously proposed draft converting the 4-year BS Pharmacy program to a 5-year BS Pharmacy program. This move to increase the college education of pharmacists by 1 year was contradicted by many schools of pharmacy as there was a fear of losing many enrollees especially to other courses which was eventually heard. Although an unpublished study confirmed the support of professional pharmacists to increase the curriculum to 5 years. The neighboring countries in Asia are already updating the curriculum to 5 years. In the Philippines though, the trend is more on ladderized, which means that after completion of a 4-year BS Pharmacy program, a student may proceed to a 5^th year to complete a year of specialization in clinical pharmacy to finish a 5-year BS Clinical Pharmacy program. Some schools like Centro Escolar University in Makati gives the option of further ladderizing the education to a 6-year PharmD course adding another year from the 5-year BS Clinical Pharmacy program. In the 5-year program, essential courses supporting HEOR are already added like Pharmacoeconomics and Health Administration and Management but it wasn’t until the current updated draft that a dedicated program for HTA is added to the 4-year BS Pharmacy program. A separate CHED CMO for internship is said to be released in the future for the new curriculum but it is yet to be determined if there will be more HEOR courses added.