The FIP is the global body representing over 4 million pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists. FIP works to meet the world’s healthcare needs and is a non-governmental organisation that has been in official relations with the World Health Organisation (WHO) since 1948.
The PDA is a proud member of FIP with this membership also benefitting PDA members. Through participation in FIP activity, PDA members not only get to learn from international colleagues but also have the chance to contribute to the international conversation about pharmacy too. The PDA represents the collective view and experience of individual pharmacists in the UK to FIP and these contributions feed into international discussions, including with WHO, if appropriate.
Read Catherine Duggan’s latest message below:
As we enter Quarter 3 of 2023, I take this opportunity to highlight some of FIP’s work that you will see in the next three months.
Supporting research
Today a two-day summer meeting organised by FIP’s Pharmacy Practice Research Special Interest Group starts. Both starting-out and experienced researchers will be presenting their latest work in a number of areas, including prescribing, medication adherence and health economics. Such practice research provides evidence of the impact of our profession on medicines use, patient care and healthcare systems. In addition, the meeting programme includes focus on supporting the communication of research and improving the quality of publications in pharmacy practice research. Abstracts will be published in FIP’s Pharmacy Education journal and I invite you to keep an eye out for these to keep abreast of innovations and new services.
Meeting needs in education
This quarter, we will be publishing a report from our Multinational Needs Assessment Programme on the key priorities in education and training of pharmacy professionals. The report presents the findings from 21 countries on their education, training and workforce development system and priorities mapped to FIP Development Goals (FIP DGs). These findings shed light on various opportunities and training gaps specific to each country, informing the development of targeted interventions to address identified gaps. By leveraging data-driven insights, the Multinational Needs Assessment programme aims to support the development of country-specific plans, enabling the design and implementation of tailored resources and activities to meet the identified needs in priority areas.
Presenting evidence of impact
In addition, to aid advancement of practice, FIP is conducting systematic reviews of evidence of pharmacists’ interventions in the areas of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and vaccination. We plan to publish our findings and key advocacy messages in the next three months.
Membership work
During this quarter, we will complete our project on reviewing our membership categories, voting and benefits. In June, we held consultation meetings with our member organisations on FIP membership, presenting a summary from phase 2 of the project, which engaged members through task and finish groups to establish proposals regarding membership categories, voting and benefits. The FIP Council will vote on the final proposals in September.
Policies to support the profession
All our member organisations have a place on the FIP Council. Our main Council Meeting will take place in September and among the agenda items will be the adoption of a number of FIP Statements of Policy, developed by FIP policy committees, to set out FIP’s current policy on a specific subject. These statements will include policies on:
- Mitigating antimicrobial resistance through antimicrobial stewardship (replacing our 2017 statement)
- Strategic development of medicines information for the benefit of patients and users of medicines (replacing our 2017 statement)
- Environment sustainability within pharmacy: (replacing our 2016 statement)
- The role of pharmacists in disaster and emergency management (replacing our 2017 statement)
- The role of pharmacy in life-course vaccination (a new statement).
These policies have been sent to council members for consultation. We will keep all our members updated with the outcomes from the Council meeting. These policy statements provide an intent to pursue a policy with other relevant international organisations and we expect our member organisations to promote each policy to national bodies, including governments. Having majority support among 152 national professional organisations, these statements also provide tools for advocacy work to advance our profession.
World Pharmacists Day and World Pharmacy Week 2023
In Quarter 3, we also celebrate and advocate for pharmacists and pharmacy with World Pharmacists Day (25 September) and World Pharmacy Week (19-25 September). Campaign assets, including a new factsheet about the theme ‘Pharmacy strengthening health systems’, are available here, with more to be released in coming weeks.
FIP world congress
I am delighted that this year, we have the opportunity to mark World Pharmacists Day together, when, at the end of September, we meet face to face with colleagues from around the world at FIP’s 81st World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Brisbane, which will be held under the theme ‘Pharmacy building a sustainable future for health care — Aligning goals to 2030’. This year the programme includes six plenary sessions:
- It’s World Pharmacists Day 2023 — Pharmacists strengthening health systems
- AMR: Challenges, opportunities and sustainable solutions
- Humanitarian crises: Challenges, opportunities and sustainable solutions
- Partnerships: Challenges, opportunities and sustainable solutions to strengthen health systems
- Technology to strengthen health systems: Challenges, opportunities and sustainable solutions
- Reflections for sustainable solutions from pharmacy globally.
In addition, there will be a workforce symposium at which the latest high-level findings from our global workforce surveillance project will be presented. Data collected from around the world is currently being analysed.
Thank you for being part of the FIP Family. We will continue to keep all our members updated through our weekly communications.
Chief Executive of FIP, Catherine Duggan
Learn more
- PDA shares update from FIP Chief Executive
- Why has PDA joined the International Pharmaceutical Federation?
- PDA joins International Pharmaceutical Federation
- Pharmacy practice research summer meeting for PhD students, postdoctoral fellows and supervisors
- Pharmacy practice research special interest group
- Pharmacy strengthens health systems
- ‘Pharmacy strengthening health systems’ is the theme of World Pharmacists Day on 25 September
Not yet a PDA member?
If you have not yet joined the PDA, we encourage you to join today and ask your colleagues to do the same.
Membership is FREE to pharmacy students, trainee pharmacists, and for the first three months of being newly qualified.
Read about our key member benefits here.