Day 8 – Fri 02 Oct: Dusseldorf

Another early breakfast was needed as the first session of the day started at 7:15am.  It was supposed to be a breakfast session, however, as we learned last year, the breakfast is very light on.  So we filled up before we left the hotel and had more coffee when we got there.  There were two presentations in this session: 

-       My experience in Haiti by Diane Lamarre (Pharmacists Without Borders, Canada); and 

-       Heatlh care in danger: moving to solutions by Bruce Eshaya-Chauvin (ICRC).

I was Chair of the next session, during which there were four presentations: 

-    Mental health issues associated with deploying – looking after yourself by Hana Morrissey (CDU, Australia); 

-    Reducing stress for deployed pharmacists – producing guidelines on managing pharmacologistics in deployed situations by Trudi Hilton (Consultant, UK); 

-        Issues arising on a deployment – practical solutions by Eiko Kobayashi (Japanese Red Cross, Japan); 

-        Development and research of a novel anti-infective and analgesic medicine XJND1201 for treatment of burns and wounds by Jia Yan-yan (4 MMU of CPLA, China).

We then had a lunch session, which is quite unusual, however, in order to fit everything in, FIP suggested we do it this way.  Jane Chaired this session on Ebola:

-        Development of the FIP Advisory for Ebola by Aldo Alvarez-Risco (Peru); and 

-        Actual experience of dealing with Ebola by Wiltshire Johnson (Sierra Leone).  This was an excellent presentation detailing how pharmacists can effectively deal with outbreaks and be the mainstay of a medical system that has failed dramatically.

The afternoon session was co-Chaired by ZY and Sylvain, with four presentations and a discussion panel: 

-        Bundeswehr pharmacy regulations, standards and inspections by Colonel Matthias Meyer; 

-        Strategic reorientation in the production of pharmaceuticals within the Bundeswehr Medical Service by Commander Christian Froben; 

-        The age of big data: the opportunity of military drug policy evaluation and decision support technology by Shu, Li-Xin (CPLA, China); and 

-        Building and inspiring a powerful pharmacy team by Captain (Navy, retd) Mark Broucker, (USA).

The discussion panel - Professional scopes of practice within a military pharmacy answered the following questions: 

-        Who conducts professional activities in your military pharmacy (pharmacist, technician, medic, nurse, etc)? 

-        What activities can they conduct? 

-        How are these activities regulated (federal/state, military, other)?

Countries represented on the panel were: Australia, Canada, Kenya, Germany, New Zealand and USA.

That completed a very full day of classroom activities.  However, the fun was not over yet.  We still had the MEPS dinner to attend.  The bus was to leave the CCD for the hotel at 5:45pm, but it was a little late in arriving due to traffic congestion.  We made it back to the hotel with plenty of time to spare to change, get back on the bus and make our way back into the Altstadt for dinner at Goldenen-Ring on Burgplatz.  We were supposed to have our own room however, due to the size of the group, we had to share a space with another section.  It was a very large room and until we started eating, there was a lot of noise.  For Euro50, we got more than enough food and MEPS contributed a bit more to pay for drinks (beer, wine and soft drinks only).  A really good night was had by all, and it was not long before we were on the bus back to the hotel.  It was almost midnight by the time I turned out the light.

Dinner venue