E-DRUG: Nutrition in health care, any role for pharmacists?
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Dear e-druggers,
I am an academic pharmacist preparing a paper on the role of nutrition in the management of chronic diseases. I will appreciate it very much if pharmacists can share with me their practice experiences in this area or studies/publications that have categorically addressed the role of pharmacits in nutritional therapy.
Rebecca Soremekun
Department of Clinical Pharmacy
Faculty of Pharmacy
University of Lagos
Nigeria
E-DRUG: Nutrition in health care, any role for pharmacists? (2)
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Dear Rebecca,
My experience as a pharmacist in the area of nutrition comes from many years of participating in new product development, technical evaluation and procurement of nutrition products for public health programmes. I can share with you the following:
1. Nutritionists are seldom agreed on exact product standards, partly because evidence is often shaky, shifting, or even controversial. You may wish, for example, to explore what the current expert thinking is on the role on nutrition products in HIV/AIDS, or that of iron supplementation in malaria endemic parts of the world.
2. Regulatory requirements vary widely from country to country. So, one often faces a situation in which country A may classify a product as a "nutritional product" whereas country B may classify it as a "pharmaceutical". The use of the term "nutraceutical" pops up from time to time. This creates a dilemma for the Pharmacist evaluating procurement bids.
3. Reliable stability data for nutrition products are hard to come by, making one wonder how product shelf Lives of the numerous nutrition products in circulation are assigned.
4. Most Nutritionists I have come across have a good knowledge of the clinical role of the nutrient/micronutrient, but little understanding of the active agent delivery options in terms of dosage forms. This is one important area where pharmacists can work together with nutritionists. This collaboration, however, should start up stream of clinical evidence gathering.
5. Lastly, I think the number of products on offer as nutrition for health care is so overwhelming that it becomes quite a challenge to decide which product to invest resources in.
Best wishes in your work,
Murtada M. Sesay
Senior Pharmaceutical Product/Supply Chain Officer
UNOPS India Procurement Office
11, Golf Links
New Delhi - 110.003
India
Tel.: +91 11 3041 7430 (Direct), +91 11 3041 7430 (switchboard)
Fax: +91 11 4350 8527
Email: Murtadas@unops.org
E-DRUG: Nutrition in health care, any role for pharmacists? (3)
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Dear Rebecca,
I fully support the advice provided by my colleague, Murtada. Even where we are, this subject is exercising everyone working in areas such as general nutrition, HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases. Clearly there is a need for pharmacy, and the health sector as a whole, to put some effort in addressing exactly what the pharmacist / pharmacy can effor in general nutrition and then in specific areas such as some of the critical areas mentioned above. The risk of not doing so is that we may be missing health benefits that might be obtained from and through nutrition intervention, in spite of the presented complexities.
Regards,
Bonnie
Bonface Fundafunda PhD., MBA., B.Pharm
Manager, Drug Supply Budget Line
Ministry of Health,
P.O. Box 30205,
Ndeke House,
Lusaka,
Zambia
Tel: +260 211 25 59 11
Fax: +260 211 25 14 04
Mobile: + 260 979 25 29 00
Email: bcfunda@hotmail.com>
E-DRUG: Nutrition in health care, any role for pharmacists? (9)
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The Board of Pharmaceutical Specialties has recognized five specialty
practice areas. Current Specialties are:
* NUCLEAR PHARMACY (1978)
Specialists seek to improve and promote the public's health through the
safe and effective use of radioactive drugs for diagnosis and therapy.
* NUTRITION SUPPORT PHARMACY (1988)
Specialists promote the maintenance and/or restoration of optimal
nutritional status, designing and modifying treatment according to the
needs of the patient.
* ONCOLOGY PHARMACY (1996)
Specialists recommend, design, implement, monitor and modify
pharmacotherapeutic plans to optimize outcomes in patients with
malignant diseases.
* PHARMACOTHERAPY (1988)
Specialists are responsible for ensuring the safe, appropriate, and
economical use of drugs in patient care and frequently serve as a
primary source of drug information for other health care organizations.
* PSYCHIATRIC PHARMACY (1992)
Specialists address the pharmaceutical care of patients with psychiatric
disorders.
Adele D. Audet, R.Ph.
MA Department of Public Health
Assistant Director, Drug Control Program
305 South Street
Jamaica Plain MA 02130
Phone 617-983-6712
FAX 617-524-8062
E-DRUG: Nutrition in health care, any role for pharmacists? (3)
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Dear Friends,
I want to share, in this context, a report of a meeting held in India some
time back on "Challenges & Opportunities for Pharmacists in health care in
India" co produced by SEARPharm forum and WHO India Country Office. You can
download the report from
www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/health/comm_update/res-21-310108-02.pdf (PDF, Size: 680 KB)
This issue was discussed earlier in Solution Exchange for Maternal & Child
Health Community in India (www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/en/Maternal-&-Child-Health/introduction.html), and was a key motivator for the meeting reported above. The Consolidated Reply of that discussion is available at
www.solutionexchange-un.net.in/en/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=606&Itemid=78 (PDF, Size: 161 KB)
Hope this is useful.
Many thanks
meghendra
Meghendra Banerjee
Resource Person & Moderator
MCH Community, Solution Exchange
WHO India
E-mail: banerjeem@searo.who.int