Media Release
Udupi, Sep 27: On the occasion of World Pharmacists' Day (WPD) 2022, Pharmacy Literacy Club (PLC), Centre for Public Health Pharmacy, Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India organized a Panel Discussion on “How to Improve Medication Use among the Public?” on September 24 forenoon at Prof. P Gundu Rao Conference Hall, MCOPS The panelists were a regulatory pharmacist, hospital pharmacist, community pharmacist, manufacturing pharmacist, academic pharmacist, and clinical pharmacist.
Shankar Naik, assistant drug controller, Udupi; Jose A J and Laxmikanth Nayak, chief pharmacists, Kasturba Hospital, Manipal; Pradeep Kumar, chief pharmacist; Radha Medicals, Manipal; Dr Mohammed Asif, research scientist, Kasturba Medical College and Dr Surulivel Rajan, professor and head, Department of Pharmacy Practice, MCOPS, Manipal were the eminent panelists of the session.
The panel members expressed their views on use of medication and problems among the public and how to tackle the issue, antimicrobial resistance and antibiotic misuse, vaccine-related issues, and recent updates in essential drug lists, etc. Ananya Rudhra, Pharm D (Intern) was the moderator of the
event. Panel discussion was followed by PLC’s first anniversary celebration with cake cutting by all the panelists. Dr C Mallikarjuna Rao, principal of MCOPS, delivered the World Pharmacists' Day message to the staff and students.
Lipin Lukose, president of PLC gave an overview of the last one year’s plethora of activities carried by PLC. Prize distributions were carried out to the winner of quiz, debate, e-poster and case presentation competitions conducted by PLC on September 22 and 23.
Dr Sonal Sekhar M, coordinator of the Centre for Public Health Pharmacy, MCOPS proposed a vote of thanks. One of the participants said, “We really enjoyed attending the panel discussion and learnt a lot today, and we will not be bored even if it covers the entire day.”
On the WPD 2022 on September 25, community outreach activities were conducted at Ambedkar Sabha Bhavana, Athrady Village, Udupi. More than 25 villagers participated in health education by PLC volunteers. In addition, physicians from the Department of Emergency Medicine, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal explained about the first aid measures for snake bites, pesticide poisoning, epilepsy, stroke, etc. Moreover, PLC student volunteers provided awareness on the benefits of refraining from alcohol and tobacco use, with skits and fun play, and distributed patient information leaflets among the community. The community program was a great success since all the villagers were actively involved.