The Continuing Professional Pharmacy Development program (CPPD) inaugurated its 2013-2014 cycle and celebrated its accreditation on October 30, 2013 with over 90 pharmacists and other health care professionals in attendance.
After a short introductory speech by Dr. Nadir Kheir, Coordinator of the CPPD program of the College of Pharmacy, Qatar University, who launched the calendar of CPPD activities for the new cycle and announced the creation of a dedicated QU CPPD Facebook page and a Twitter account to further enable a continued interaction between the CPPD and the health care professionals in Qatar, the College of Pharmacy Dean, Dr. Ayman El-Kadi, welcomed the special guests: Dr. Jamal Al-Khanji, Director of Health Care Quality and Patient Safety, Supreme Council of Health (SCH), Dr. Samar Abulsoud, Accreditation Manager, (SCH) and Dr. Ibrahim Janahi, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Weill-Cornell Medical College-Qatar and Senior Consultant and Head of Pediatric Pulmonology Section in Hamad Medical Corporation. Dr. El-Kadi spoke about CPPD as an important outreaching initiative that aims to improve healthcare delivery and the programs’ alignment with Qatar’s National Health Strategy 2011-2016. He added that the program also supports Qatar University’s Vision to become a model national university in the region, recognized for high-quality education and research and for being a leader of economic and social development.
In his speech, Dr. Jamal Al-Khanji emphasized that Qatar University’s CPPD program is the SCHs’ first officially accredited program in the country. He praised its quality, as well as the high level of the individuals contributing to its activities. Dr. Al-Khanji said, “ accreditation of this program marks an important milestone on the road to focused and structured continuing healthcare education in the country.”
Mrs. Dina Elgaily, PharmD student, represented the pharmacists regularly attending the CPPD and conveyed impressions of her colleagues about how the CPPD impacted on their practice and their professional standard and attitude. Dr. Kheir then presented a paper on asthma management that focused on the utilization of the asthma action plans by pharmacists to maximize achieving positive outcome in asthma management. This was followed by a presentation by Dr. Ibrahim Janahi on ‘Asthma Masqueraders’, health conditions mimicking (in their presentation and symptoms) asthma and therefore could be misdiagnosed as asthma. He used 12 case studies to illustrate his topic, and his presentation was well received by the audience.
The evening concluded with group activities in which pharmacists were asked to discuss four case scenarios in an interactive environment. The activity was co-facilitated by Miss. Mawadda Gajam and Mr. Wessam Kassem, (both PharmD students) and a pre-post quiz was filled by attendees to help assess knowledge retention.