The project coordinator, during her doctoral formation, observed during the last years a significant deficiency of graduate and postgraduate pharmacy education in the area of algesiology. Thanks to the opportunity given by the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP®) through the educational grants “Initiative for Improving Pain Education”, the possibility of establishing an institutional framework through which a scientific education concerning pain can be offered has been identified.
These were the reasons underlying the submission of this teaching project. The curricula of the graduate pharmacy studies does not comprise an algesiology lecture or any other specific lectures concerning pain and its drug therapy, with the exception of a lone chapter within the “Pharmacology” lecture and some case studies during the “Clinical Pharmacy” seminaries. Also there are no postgraduate algesiology lectures for pharmacists.
Keeping in mind that the “Clinical Pharmacy” lecture became compulsory in the University Center Iasi only beginning with the school year 2005-2006, the pharmacists that graduated before year 2005 had even less information regarding the management of pain pharmacotherapy. Thus, the existence of an institutional structure became necessary, in harmony with European and American curricula, through which the pharmacists can be guided towards a scientific and rational pain therapy.
Beside the information benefit for the attendants, the program has CME credits, obtained from the Romanian Pharmacy Association. Each of the 4 modules received 20 CME credits, which only increased the attractiveness of this initiative. The Medical Association acknowledged this initiative too, offering 18 CME credits per module.
http://www.umfiasi.ro/atdoc/EMC/EMC_Farmacie_2009-2010.pdf
Also, as each of these modules is elaborated as a self-sustaining entity, they can be attended separately.
The students come from all the counties of Romanian Moldova, including disfavored communities, areas in which the primary medical assistance is reduced and where the pharmacists from the community pharmacies are solicited to offer counseling for the symptomatic primary care. Due to the fact that most of the analgesic drugs (with the exception of opiates and anesthetics) are OTC (can be sold without prescription), there is a tendency of the larger public towards self-medication and implicit analgesic abuse. This is why we considered that the pharmacists, mainly those that work in the community pharmacy, has to be familiarized with the benefit/risk balance in the therapy of pain.
The purpose of the project coordinator and of the whole “Pharmalgesio” team is to improve the quality of life for patients with pain and to reduce the risks associated to analgesic drug abuse.
Veronica Bild, PharmD, PhD
Lecturer, Faculty of Pharmacy
University of Medicine and Pharmacy
“Gr. T. Popa” Iasi, Romania