Hi everyone,

We celebrated World Diabetes Day (WDD) from 12-13Nov 09!(thu and fri) 
Thanks for join us in wearing BLUE on to mark WDD. I hoped you all learnt something from the information on the big floor stickers as well as the bookmarks given out!
Pictures can be found at: http://picasaweb.google.com/nuspspharmacy/WorldDiabetesDay

Today’s the actual day for WDD, and i would like to encourage everyone be aware of the risks of diabetes and lead a healthy lifestyle! Please read the previous entry on Dr Joyce Lee’s work and how she actually helped a diabetic patient!

WDD is celebrated every year on November 14, to mark the birthday of Frederick Banting who, along with Charles Best, first conceived the idea which led to the discovery of insulin in 1922. The World Diabetes Day campaign is led by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and its member associations. World Diabetes Day was created in 1991 by the International Diabetes Federation and the World Health Organization in response to growing concerns about the escalating health threat that diabetes now poses. 

Diabetes Education and Prevention is the World Diabetes Day theme for the period 2009-2013. The campaign slogan for 2009 is “Understand Diabetes and Take Control”. Diabetes is difficult. The disease imposes life-long demands on the 250 million people now living with diabetes and their families. People with diabetes must deliver 95% of their own care, so it is of paramount importance that they receive ongoing, high-quality diabetes education that is tailored to their needs and delivered by skilled health professionals. In addition, IDF estimates that over 300 million people worldwide are at risk for type 2 diabetes.Type 2 diabetes can be prevented in the many cases by helping and encouraging those at risk to maintain a healthy weight and take regular exercise. The key messages for everyone are:

Know the diabetes risks and know the warning signs
Know how to respond to diabetes and who to turn to
Know how to manage diabetes and take control

Let’s all work towards diabetes prevention!

Warmest Regards,
Valerie

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Not Yesterday’s Pharmacist Any More

By Joyce Lee, Pharm.D., BCPS
NUS Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacy
Primary Care Clinical Pharmacist, NHG Polyclinics/Pharmacy

A few months ago, I saw Mrs. Tan for her uncontrolled diabetes. She was referred to my clinic by her doctor. When I reviewed her medical history and lab results, it showed that her condition had been long-standing with hint of complication. Mrs. Tan had been using five insulin injections religiously every day for years, yet she could not keep her blood sugar under control. She was losing faith in the medical treatment.

After spending some time talking with her and performing a few simple physical assessments, I recommended that her insulin therapy to be converted from five injections to two injections. Mrs. Tan looked at me in amazement and asked, “Are you sure?” A few months later, I was happy to congratulate Mrs. Tan for achieving a dramatic improvement in her blood sugar control, something which she once thought impossible. Although she thanked me for helping her, I really should be the one to thank her for making my job as a clinical pharmacist so rewarding.

Dr Joyce Lee seeing a patient.

The role of pharmacists is rapidly changing from the traditional pill dispenser to an integral member of a patient?s healthcare team. Although the evolvement has started decades ago mainly in the United States, the change is only beginning to happen in Asia with Singapore among the Asian pioneers.

Two years ago, I came from the US to join the NUS ‘pharmily’ and National Healthcare Group Polyclinics/Pharmacy with a dream to help advance the pharmacy profession and to set up clinical pharmacist services in Singapore. During my site visit for the job, I was impressed by the contributions of Singaporean pharmacists in the hospital settings. More improvement, however, was still needed in the primary care setting.

HDL-C Clinical Pharmacists. From left: Ms. Lim Mui Eng, Ms. Anna Liew, Ms. Evonne Lee, Ms. Ng Sock Mui, myself (Dr. Joyce Lee), and Ms. Esther Bek. Not in the picture: Ms. Ong Soo Im.

In October 2007, I piloted the first pharmacist-managed multi-disease clinic, also known as the?hypertension, diabetes and lipids clinic (HDL-C) in Singapore. The clinic targets the top chronic diseases in the country. It aims to work collaboratively with doctors, nurses, and other allied healthcare professionals as a team in the primary care setting to manage uncontrolled chronic conditions and to minimize complications and unnecessary hospital admissions. HDL-C was first piloted in Bukit Batok Polyclinic and the service has since expanded to Clementi and Choa Chu Kang polyclinics. I am grateful to the doctors at NHG Polyclinics, especially Dr. Sabrina Wong, Dr. Elaine Tan and Dr. Keith Tsou for supporting an idea that is new to Singapore and for giving me the guidance and resources to train primary care pharmacists and provide the HDL-C service.

This is still the beginning. Whether in the hospital setting or the primary care setting, the role of pharmacists continues to evolve. I believe Singapore will remain the trend setter in this field in Asia not only because Singapore has supportive public health managers but also because of its bright students, and high quality faculty at the NUS Department of Pharmacy who are uniquely qualified to educate pharmacists of the future. To prepare for the coming changes in pharmacy practice, the Department of Pharmacy at NUS has modernized its pharmacy curriculum, and the first post-graduate Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) class was launched this year in order to cultivate pharmacists with a high level of clinical skills.

Mrs. Tan’s story is only one of many success stories that take place every day in Singapore due to the changing role of today’s pharmacists. With more pharmacists stepping out from their traditional place behind the pharmacy counter and applying their knowledge and skills to direct patient care, Singaporeans can look forward to a new important improvement in their healthcare service.

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If you’re interested, you may also read the articles by our other 2 faculty members from here:
By Adjunct Assoc Prof Chan Cheng Leng and
By Adjunct Assoc Prof Lam Pin Woon.

Credits to The Ministry of Health blog for the articles.

Feel free to discuss your own opinions about the posts!

Regarding the technical difficulties in accessing the previous link provided, the file has been uploaded onto a new web-hosting server.
You may access it here.

We’re very sorry for any inconvenience caused! ):
We also seek your understanding in the matter. Most free file-hosting sites have restricted bandwidth allocation–getting a premium account with unlimited access would cost. And it wouldn’t be good to charge our fellow students for that, so we’re looking into free alternatives.

If you have any suggestions or further feedback, do contact us at mrt.nusps@gmail.com!
Polite and constructive feedback is greatly appreciated!

Thank you very much for your patience!

Yours sincerely,
Belinda & the 49th Media Resource Team
(Woops, Circle-Line construction was delayed by unforeseen circumstances too)

Here’s the latest issue of ELIXIR!
In this issue, read all about events such as

1. Freshmen Orientation Camp & Week
Did you hear about how FOC ended prematurely because of H1N1? Still, most would agree that the fun and friendships made during the camp were worth the 7-day quarantine.
Read all about how the freshies were warmly introduced to the Pharmily.

2. RAG & FLAG
We fought hard and long to keep Rag an event of ours. And we definitely didn’t disappoint! See the photos of our spectacular presentation that easily rivalled the other competing faculties.

3. IPSF, YEP and others
Our events aren’t all just kept here, in school. Read more about our students who have gone or are going overseas, and their experiences.

We’ve also included lots of other juicy tidbits related to Pharmacy. For instance, do you know what the NUSPS logo stands for? Or how long it takes for a new drug to enter the market?

Why not take a read to find out!

So do take a short break from your studying and look through Elixir to unwind! )

Click on the image to access the newsletter!
This opens the document in a new browser window.

Alternatively, you may also download the file from here. We advise you to do this instead of viewing the online version as this file host has a larger bandwidth. Apologies for any inconvenience caused!

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With Warmest Regards,
Belinda & the 49th Media Resource Team
NUS Pharmaceutical Society

(We bring you news faster than the construction of the Kent Ridge MRT station. Really.)

The NUS Career Centre has organized a series of recruitment talks to enable undergraduates to get to know more about the various organizations. The following talks may be of interest to you:

1.
Organization: National Healthcare Group (NHG)
Date: Thursday (22nd October 2009)
Time: 6.30pm
Venue: LT15

2.
Organization: National University Health System
Date: Friday (23rd October 2009)
Time: 6.30pm
Venue: LT15

Do take note of the following information:

DRESS CODE
For the GUYS, please wear business shirts and pants. For the LADIES, please wear blouses and skirts/pants.

Please note that students who wear singlets, crew-neck T-Shirts, jeans, shorts, burmudas and slippers will be denied entry to these talks.
Remember, first impression counts!

REGISTRATION
1. If you are interested in attending any of the Graduate Recruitment Opportunities listed in this schedule, please go to?this site to register.

2. Registration is done by clicking on the date and title of the talk, click on new item, complete the registration form, then save and close the item.

3. Your name will only be reflected on the registration list if you register by 2pm of the day of the Recruitment Talk, unless otherwise stated.

4. If you are unable to attend the talk, do delete your name from the registration page.

Warmest Regards,
Sung Wei Xiu
Academic Director
49th Executive Committee
NUS Pharmaceutical Society

There has been much buzz on the newspapers recently about doctors who have been negligent in their prescriptions. Although stiff penalties have been imposed by the Health Ministry, there are still a good number of doctors who fall into the web of greed. These unethical acts pose threats not only to the reputation of the doctors, but also to the lives of their patients.

In the past five years, 23 doctors have been hauled before the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) and penalized for dispensing sleeping pills indiscriminately. Subutex drugs, meant for curbing heroin abuse, were also freely dispensed to patients?however the drugs ended up being abused.

Several people such as Madam Halimah Yacob (Jurong GRC) and Salma Khalik (Straits Times Health Correspondent) have suggested the separation of prescription from sale. Pharmacists, trained to check doctors? prescription, would help maintain patient safety by ensuring that the appropriate drugs are dispensed to the patients.

It has been agreed that it would be highly inconvenient for patients to go down to a pharmacy after consulting a doctor to get their medication, compared to the one-stop service patients are exposed to locally. However, this may not be applicable to drugs such as sleeping pills or obesity drugs. These drugs are not needed urgently by patients, but still can be easily abused if doctors are lax in prescribing them.
The Straits Time report also suggests that there could be an identifying of pharmacy-only drugs or the registering of patients who are prescribed such drugs, to prevent doctor-hopping.

The current dispensing system has been kept by the Health Ministry in order to ensure the convenience of patients. However, Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan has suggested that doctors provide patients with a clearly written prescription, and then leave the patient to decide where to obtain his medication.

Another good way of preventing greed by doctors while keeping the current system of practice would be to enforce transparency in bills from private clinics that itemize the costs of consultation, tests and drugs.

Review by: Selina Lim & Belinda Tan (Year 1)

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What do you think? Discuss your views here.
Time to apply what we have learnt in PR1103!

Have you ever think about competing with the other students from the medical societies in sporting games? Do you find that there needs to be more friendly competitions between the various student societies? Now here’s your chance!

The 61st Medical Society has warmly extended invitations to all the 4 major Allied-Health student societies (Pharmacy, Dentistry, Nursing and Duke-NUS) to take part in their Annual Intra-Year Games. We are invited to take part in the following friendly games:

Floorball (Men & Women) – 25 October (Sunday), 11 am – 7 pm
Venue: MPSH 6, NUS Sports and Recreation Centre
- 5 on court, no goalie, men shoot with board obscuring goal cage. 2 halves of 7 mins.

Captain’s Ball (Mixed) – 7 November (Saturday), 9 am – 1 pm
Venue: Outdoor Multipurpose Courts, NUS Sports and Recreation Centre
- 6 on court, at least 2 from either gender.

As such, I hope to see students from across all 4 years to come and participate in these games. There will be 2 teams of floorball (men & women) as well as 1 team of captain’s ball.?Please express your interest by registering with the Welfare Head, Cindy at xinyimeimei89@yahoo.com. The registration will end on 21st October (coming wednesday). I look forward to your arduous support for this event and feel free to?contact me at nuspspres@gmail.com for any queries. Thank you!

–
Warmest regards,
Tan Wei Zhe Edwin
President
49th Executive Committee
NUS Pharmaceutical Society

Greetings! Health Expeditions International is an newly established NGO set up by students, for students with the aim of empowering volunteers to plan, lead and execute humanitarian expeditions.

Past expeditions include Project Khon Kaen (Thailand), with future projects in Thaliand, China and Africa under study. We have also built up a healthy database of contacts and are working actively to expand this for future expeditions, so exciting times lie ahead!

Join our mailing list here where you’ll be able to receive updates on HealthEx’s developments, sign up and lead expeditions, as well as access our resources for planning expeditions. You can also join us on Facebook.

Please feel free to email us at enquiries@healthexinternational.org for any queries! I’m looking forward to working with you to shape our world through humanitarian projects

–
Gabriel Cher | Membership Officer | Healthcare Expeditions International
www.healthexinternational.org

Volunteer fund collectors are needed for the victims of Typhoon Ketsana and Padang Earthquake.
In support of these disaster-relief efforts by Singapore Red Cross, NUS Student Union (NUSSU) and Graduate Students’ Society (GSS) are raising funds within the NUS campus for two weeks. Booths will be set up at places with high human traffic in NUS to collect donations from the NUS community. The fundraising will be conducted in NUS from Monday, 19th to Friday, 23rd October, 11am to 3pm every day.
How can you help?

You can help by manning booths and reaching out to the NUS community to donate generously to the cause.

There are 2 timeslots, 10.30am-1pm and 12.30pm-3pm.

The booths will be set up at the following locations:

1. Engineering Canteen
2. Engineering LT6
3. Science LT27
4. Science Foyer LT26
5. Central Library Walkway
6. Central Forum
7. Business Canteen
8. Arts Walkway
9. Arts Canteen

Please register?here by Friday 16 Oct, 10am.

For further clarifications and enquiries, feel free to email us at help.asian.disaster.victims@gmail.com. Your efforts will be meaningful to those affected by the recent disasters and we would greatly appreciate your help and support.

On behalf of NUSSU/GSS
Sincerely,
Thank You.