PharmD students extend international connections, join pharmacy sustainability conference in Taiwan
Since 2008, students at The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy have hosted exchange students from China Medical University (CMU) and National Taiwan University (NTU), and since 2015, hosted students from Taipei National University (TNU).
This July, PharmD candidates Grace Mackall (P2), Marvellous Olowookere (P3) and Lyann Trinh (P3), got the chance to reunite with their friends from the annual exchange when they traveled to Taiwan for the 2024 Program of Sustainable Development Goals and Pharmaceutical Learning Network (SDGs & PLN) hosted by CMU.
Alongside their peers from Taiwan, China, Thailand and Vietnam, the group tackled sustainability issues, learned about each other’s health care systems, shadowed in Taiwanese pharmacies and learned about the role of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).
It was a great opportunity to extend collaboration between Ohio State and international partners, as well as for our students to connect with global perspectives on sustainability and apply that to their role as a pharmacist.
This travel opportunity was made possible by the contribution of Chih-Ming Chen, PhD ’81, to the Global Pharmacy Initiative. Students’ participation and travel were organized by Jennifer Seifert, RPh, MS ’99, associate professor and director of continuing professional development at the Ohio State College of Pharmacy.
“CMU created this conference as a way to bring countries together around the topic of sustainability,” Seifert said. “It was a great opportunity to extend collaboration between Ohio State and international partners, as well as for our students to connect with global perspectives on sustainability and apply that to their role as a pharmacist.”
Split into teams with their international peers, the students were assigned one of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to propose a solution to. These goals are a rallying point for sustainability advocates and were adopted by United Nations Member States in 2015.
“Connecting these topics to pharmacy was a little overwhelming at first but working in our groups we found that they tied to each of our worldviews, regardless of where we had come from,” Olowookere said. “Even though each of our countries had differences in pharmacy, we all related to the sustainability conversation as it continues to grow in importance.”
Throughout the program, students engaged in faculty-led seminars about sustainability and its relevance to health care. Student teams employed the course content to craft solutions for their assigned SDG and demonstrated how a pharmacy could effectively implement those solutions.
Trinh’s group, assigned SDG 12: responsible consumption and production, created GreenMed Plastics. This proposal offered biodegradable alternatives to the single-use packaging often utilized in health care spaces, even designing a model to gather the used materials for proper decomposition or recycling.
Outside of the classroom, Mackall, Olowookere and Trinh shadowed pharmacy settings that dispensed FDA-approved medications. Olowookere joined a pediatric hospital pharmacy, Trinh visited a community pediatric pharmacy and Mackall a general community pharmacy.
“The biggest difference I noticed compared to our pharmacies in Ohio was how busy it was,” Olowookere said. “In Taiwan, pharmacists do all the dispensing with a few ‘assistants’ who help with stocking. There were at least 15-20 pharmacists in the hospital pharmacy at a time to deal with the number of prescriptions coming through.”
In addition to the higher number of pharmacists, all three students were impressed by the efficient design of the national health record system in action at the pharmacies. The group delved deeper into the database during a visit to the Taiwan Food Drug Administration and Center for Drug Evaluation.
“The continuum of care in Taiwan is great because patients have a record card that allows health care providers anywhere to see their comprehensive medical history,” Mackall said. “That would be super useful to implement in the U.S.”
After visiting CMU’s TCM museum, the group visited the Medie Traditional Chinese Medicine Pharmacy, where traditional treatments that do not fall under Taiwan FDA’s purview are distributed. These medications come from natural sources and with deep historical roots, they’ve become an accepted element of wellness for many citizens of Taiwan.
“Though TCM certainly doesn’t serve the same role as modern medications, it's something that physicians and pharmacists have to be aware of,” Trinh said. “So many people still use TCM so health care professionals have to understand the ways TCM and contemporary treatments work together.”
Over the course of two weeks, the students found themselves with some exciting new solutions for sustainability, new friends and an appreciation for a good 7/11 snack.
“The opportunity to engage with students from Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, and learning about their countries’ pharmacy policies and practices was one of the most rewarding aspects of the trip,” Mackall reflected. “It expanded my knowledge of global pharmacy and has motivated me to apply this broader perspective to my own studies and future career.”