Rwanda Pharmaceutical Students Association (RPSA) held its 11th International Pharmaceutical Symposium (IPS)

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Rwanda Pharmaceutical Students Association (RPSA) held its 11th International Pharmaceutical Symposium (IPS)

International Pharmaceutical Symposium (IPS) is an annual event organized by Rwanda Pharmaceutical Students Association (RPSA), which convenes national and international pharmacy students, other healthcare students as well as professionals. The 11th IPS was held online and in-person on the 25th and 26th of March 2022 at the University of Rwanda-Remera Campus, under the theme "Towards Good Pharmacy Practice: Moving from Basic Competence to Modern Practice."

This year’s Symposium brought together researchers, lecturers, pharmacists from different specialties, medical doctors, recent graduates, RPSA Alumni, Healthcare students (Pharmacy, Medical, Nurses, etc.), students from Rwanda, Kenya, DR Congo, Tanzania, and Uganda, the University of Rwanda Staff, National Pharmacy Council, Rwanda Food and Drug Authority, and delegates the Ministry of Health in Rwanda, to discuss progress, possible improvement to be taken in the pharmacy profession and share the intra and interprofessional experiences.

Dr. NYANDWI Jean Baptiste, a lecturer at the University of Rwanda, Pharmacy department, and the Patron of the Symposium, highlighted that Pharmacy practice is not just about dealing with drugs. On the one hand, Pharmacists must ensure that anything they perform does not contradict the doctor's standard practice; they should complement each other. To be a healthcare professional requires knowledge, competence, determined sense of serving others, and that to fit into pharmaceutical industrialization, pharmacists should excel in advanced knowledge. He concluded by saying that in the contemporary era, there are so many technological advancements and long-term plans to preserve pharmacy ethics and conduct and demonstrate the rapid revamp of the pharmacy profession to address current health concerns via research, immunization, and medicine manufacturing.

At the Symposium, the Advocacy and Communication Officer, a representative from the Rwanda NCD Alliance, highlighted the role of a pharmacist in a panel discussion themed “shedding light on the biggest killer in the developing World: Contributions of pharmacists to the fight against Non-Communicable Diseases.” He stressed the fact that pharmacists being medicine experts and the most accessible healthcare professionals, should play an active role in NCD prevention, treatment, care, and support, as well as advocacy, particularly to contribute to screening for and monitoring NCDs, counsel people living with NCDs on NCDs medication adherence, provide medication therapy management services, promote public health, and improve access to quality, and affordable medications. To realize their full potential and overcome particular limitations, he stated that pharmacists should invest in continual professional development and equip themselves with the necessary skills and knowledge to prevent and control NCDs. He also urged all pharmacy participants to start acting on NCDs in their respective areas of practice, stating that there would be no better time to act on NCDs than now.