A one day seminar on “Challenges Faced by Clinical Pharmacists in Patient Care” was organized by the Department of Pharmacy Practice, Amrita School of Pharmacy on 3^rd July 2015. 

The program started with a welcome address by Mr. Naveen Kumar Panicker, Lecturer, Department of Pharmacy Practice, Amrita School of Pharmacy followed by a keynote address stressing the relevance of the topic in current clinical pharmacy scenario in India by Dr. Sabitha M., Principal, Amrita School of Pharmacy.

Dr. Elizabeth Unni, Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Roseman University of Health Sciences, Utah, USA was the speaker for the first session and her talk was entitled “The Invisible Epidemic that Affects Pharmaceutical Care.” She enlightened the audience on various aspects of medication adherence explaining the various causes of medication non-adherence, the methods for its measurement, interventions to improve adherence and the various scales used for estimation of medication adherence and the role of clinical pharmacist in improving medication adherence. This session was chaired by Dr. Sabitha M, Principal, Amrita School of Pharmacy.

Dr. Sudhir Unni, Research Associate, Pharmacotherapy Outcomes Research Center, University of Utah, USA elaborated on various models in outcome research with examples and quoted a few of his studies based on outcome research during his session on “Challenges in Patient Outcome Management.” The second session was chaired by Mr. Emmanuel James, Associate Professor and HOD, Department of Pharmacy Practice.

During the afternoon session the speaker Dr. Surulivel Rajan, Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice, Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences dealt with the topic “Clinical Pharmacy: A Profession with Challenges and Untapped Opportunities”. He discussed the various challenges faced by clinical pharmacists in patient care. He also shed light on various career opportunities available for the budding clinical pharmacists in India and abroad. The session was chaired by Dr. Uma Devi P, Assistant Professor & Head, Department of Pharmacology, Amrita School of Pharmacy.

All the talks were followed by an interactive session with active participation of students and faculty. Pharm. D. (fourth and fifth year students), Pharm. D. interns, M. Pharm. (Pharmacy Practice), B. Pharm.( fifth and seventh semester students) and faculty of Amrita School of Pharmacy attended the seminar.

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Amrita Seminar on Challenges Faced by Clinical Pharmacists in Patient Care