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Pharmacy 6193 East meets west was a fascinating class. I loved learning about how pharmacy can change from country to country. In the US, I learned more about pharmacy specialists and how to become an expert in Tobacco Cessation patient care. In Taiwan, I learned a ton about Traditional Chinese Medicine. I learned about the different types that are recommended for smoking cessation. We also learned about pharmacist care and how the population has a different view of pharmacy in both countries.

I learned about communication as well in this class. We made numerous small presentations and one large presentation to a group on camera. At the beginning of the course, I was hesitant on presenting because I worried about the language barrier. I treated others like we needed to dumb everything down. Instead the Taiwanese were fully prepared and easy to understand. My level of comfort dramatically changed with international communication. I believe I gained the confidence to communicate effectively with other students and discuss our passions for pharmacy.

I believe this course has increased my view of intercultural and international communication. I learned how pharmacy is different in each country and how each of us can still make an impact in patient care. I hope to continue taking courses like this to further impact my career in international pharmacy studies/ global public health.

Yesterday, we had a meeting students in Taiwan. I learned a ton from both these schools. I felt TMU was similar to the US curriculum. For example, the 6 years with more therapeutics is similar to US pharmacy programs. CMU was completely different in that they focus on Chinese herbal therapy instead of only pharmacotherapy. In our group 3 discussion, we found many similarities and differences among each of the programs. In Taiwan, a residency is required or PGY after school, but it does not lead you to getting a job in a specialty. We learned that there is a gender gap in all three schools. Women are more popular in school and in practice. We also talked about money. Tuition in Taiwan is about $4000 which is completely different from out $20,000 a year. Lastly, we talked about a standard patient with a cold. In Taiwan, a patient would go to the doctor is they are ill. In the US, patients try to self-treat first before going to the doctor. Overall, I was fascinated by the Taiwan students. I am excited for December to communicate more to them about pharmacy and hear their views on smoking cessation.

http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/content/104/4/260.full

Journal of the National Cancer Institute

“Enhancing the Effectiveness of Smoking Cessation Interventions: A Caner Prevention Imperative”

The prevalence has smoking has seen a decline over the last 50 years. There still is a lot of work to go. Currently about 1 in 5 adults are smokers. Roughly 1/3 of all cancer deaths are due to smoking. “Consequently, any intervention that reduces smoking prevalence, either by preventing the uptake of smoking among youth or promoting smoking cessation among addicted smokers, represents a powerful cancer prevention strategy.” A demonstrated decline in smoking has contributed to the current decline in cancer deaths.

Smoking cessation provides many health benefits. Currently the most efficacious interventions are counseling and smoking cessation pharmacotherapies. In this article, a RCT of more than 2200 smokers of Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese ancestry was done to test the efficacy of ethnically tailored counseling compared to self-help materials. Each Asian ancestry group found benefit of ethnically tailored and language specific counseling interventions. This is relevant to global tobacco control as Asia is one of the epicenters of tobacco addiction.

To reduce cancer deaths caused by smoking, tobacco control efforts are needed to accelerate the endemic of smoking. We need to refine the understanding of existing intervention strategies. The studies in this journal article remind us smoking cessation interventions are a function of its efficacy and reach. “By applying smoking cessation interventions of proven efficacy to assess their value within subgroups of the smoker population, these studies have advance the understanding of the potential value of tailored interventions vs a “one size fits all” approach.”

Questions:

Do you believe this technique of tailored behavioral counseling would work in other parts of the world?

Do you think this method is effective or would you push pharmacotherapy instead?

How can we implement this program in the US and reach patients that cannot afford regular pharmacotherapy?

I thought I would post this!

The FDA launched a new campaign to prevent and reduce tobacco use among multicultural youth. The campaign is named ” Fresh Empire.” It empowers teens who identify with hip-hop community to live tobacco free. The hip hop peer crowd is hard to reach and frequently exposed to tobacco. The campaign’s goal is to reach teens at key points I. Their lives when experimenting with smoking can lead to addiction at about age 12-17. They will use media, digital platforms, and local outreach for this program.

Close to 90% of adult smokers began before they were 18. Early intervention is critical for this campaign. About 4.4 million multicultural youth are open to smoking or are already experimenting . Interfering with this statistic is the best chance we have to stop smoking in adults.

Today, we are supposed to find 2 articles on smoking cessation in the news!!

http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/104/11/e51.full

* This article is from the American Heart Association. The article summarizes what cessation tools have been used for the past 25 years and how to utilize these agents to stop smoking! This article is great for a smoker to find ways to quit and how to get help! The article provides benefits of smoking cessation, recommended medications, counseling, and other sources to find help!

http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2443059

*This article was released to the public on September 21st, 2015! The article talks about the task force set up to aid patients in deciding between medication, behavioral intervention, or both! The U.S. Preventive Services Task Forces recommends both counseling and pharmaceutical interventions to help both adults and pregnant women to quit smoking. There is still not sufficient evidence for the Task Force to assess the benefits and harms of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation in adults.

I felt both articles provided new perspectives on smoking cessation. Many individuals do not know that there is help if they just take the time to look. I believe we can convince many smokers to either think about quitting or to consider quitting after this class is done. I do not smoke, but I would have never knew the information that I have learned in this class. Smoking Cessation is such a huge topic and I believe if more clinicians knew about the resources available, more patients would quit!

Here is Valentina Lim’s Smoking Cessation Video!

Here is Andrea Finger’s Smoking Cessation Video!!

This week our goal was to interview a pharmacist to get real world practical experience. We know how we feel as students, but does the pharmacist see smoking cessation happening in his/her workplace? I have worked at the same large chain pharmacy for 4 years and have seen very little done with smoking cessation. I believe we can change this and eventually grow to provide more patient care and follow up with each and every patient!

Here is my video! Click on the link! It is sideways, but just pretend it is right side up!

Hopefully it posts correctly!!

Hello all!

I am beginning this blog for an Independent Study. We are researching pharmacists’ impact on smoking cessation in America. We have to make a video clip representing the topic. My ideas for the topic are interviewing a few pharmacists in a retail chain in America. I want to ask them questions such as: What does the company do for smoking cessation, how long have they helped employees, have they done anything, what would you recommend for cessation, and how do they thing we as pharmacists can help patients with smoking cessation?

I plan to interview 2-3 pharmacists and get their outlook on the subject. I want to see what has been done and what their opinions are for what could be done!

I cannot wait to hear the answers!

Have a magical day!!