President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of April 29 with International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) President Michel Buchmann. In addition to expressing his deepest appreciation for the FIP's continued support, in its capacity as an NGO member of the World Health Organization, for participation by Taiwan in the World Health Assembly (WHA), the president also called for enhanced interaction and cooperation in the field of pharmacy.
In remarks, President Ma noted that in 2011 during the FIP's Ministerial Summit held in Amsterdam, discussions on the "responsible use of medicines" yielded agreements on four policy principles, namely "emphasis on collaboration between healthcare professionals," "identifying patient needs," "seeking pharmaceutical innovation," and "supporting evidence-driven policymaking," with the hope of providing patients and non-patients with better health care services, the president said.
Under the system of separation of dispensing practice from medical practice that Taiwan began implementing in 1997, said President Ma, doctors are responsible for diagnosis and the writing of prescriptions, while pharmacists provide professional pharmaceutical services to ensure that drugs are used safely. This, he said, reduces the risk of duplicated and unnecessary medication. President Ma commented that this initiative meshes well with the FIP's promotion of "responsible use of medicines."
During his tenure as Taipei City mayor, said the president, the city worked with the Taiwan Pharmacist Association in jointly promoting separation of dispensing practice from medical practice. The most important part of this initiative is a system of refillable prescriptions for patients with chronic illnesses, which is beneficial all around to physicians, pharmacists, and patients. President Ma noted that after he became president, being aware of the value of Taipei's successful experience, he asked the Executive Yuan's Department of Health to continue to promote and implement this system throughout Taiwan.
President Ma mentioned that the policy of having community pharmacies dispense medicines for chronic disease enables pharmacists to utilize their professional expertise, and also provides convenience to residents in the area. This ensures that the public is able to access reasonable, safe, and high-quality health care services, he noted. For example, said the president, if a person contracts H7N9 avian flu or the H1N1 virus, community pharmacies would play a big role by educating people on how to avoid contracting disease, and by responding quickly when people fall ill. In this way, they would reduce waste of health care resources, he said.
President Ma remarked that the Pharmaceutical Society of Taiwan and the Taiwan Society of Health System Pharmacists are both members of the FIP, while the Pharmaceutical Society of Taiwan is a member of the Federation of Asian Pharmaceutical Associations (FAPA). Pharmacists from Taiwan present papers at FIP annual conferences, he said, to report on their academic and clinical research. In all, he noted, pharmacists from Taiwan presented 62 papers last year at the conference. In addition, last year 19 pharmacists in Taiwan received government funding to attend the annual FIP conference in the Netherlands. This enabled Taiwan to engage directly with the international community by sharing its successes in pharmaceutical services and interacting with counterparts from throughout the world, the president commented.
President Ma further stated that pharmacists from Taiwan have enthusiastically participated in international affairs for many years, and have distinguished themselves in this regard. For instance, Minister without Portfolio Oliver Yoa-Pu Hu (胡幼圃) of the Examination Yuan served as a joint-chair of a committee established under the FIP, while former Deputy Minister of Health Mei-Ling Hsiao (蕭美玲) has for many years served in important positions in the FIP. The president said Executive Director Tony Yen-Huei Tarn (譚延輝) of the Taiwan Pharmacist Association this year began serving as the vice president of the Western Pacific Pharmaceutical Forum, while Taipei Pharmacists Association Adviser Wang Wen-Fu (王文甫) is the president-elect of the FAPA. All of this points to the efforts and successes of Taiwan's pharmacists, which the president said needs to be recognized.
With respect to interaction between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait on pharmaceutical affairs, the president noted, in December 2010 the two sides signed the Cross-Strait Cooperation Agreement on Medicine and Public Health Affairs, which enables the medical and pharmaceutical sectors on both sides to engage in interaction under the principle of mutual benefit and equality. President Ma stated that last year in Beijing a symposium on cross-strait interaction regarding medical services and regulatory systems focused on areas of pharmacy services cooperation that were not included in the aforementioned cross-strait agreement. Pharmaceutical experts from the two sides reached various points of consensus, paving the way for Taiwan to share with its mainland counterparties its successes in the medical and pharmaceutical fields. The president described this progress as extremely meaningful.
This interaction continues, said the president, noting that pharmacy groups from Beijing and Shanghai were invited to the 2013 Intercity Pharmacy Forum held by the Taipei Pharmacists Association on April 28. The participants discussed the impact of insurance drug pricing policy on medication safety and exchanged views on the future of cross-strait pharmaceutical services and the role of pharmacists, with the hope of creating even better opportunities for cooperation in this field, the president remarked.
Lastly, President Ma stressed that in recent years the ROC has sought to act in the international community as a provider of humanitarian aid. In the pharmaceutical field, the government is actively helping other nations train pharmacists. For instance, he noted, Taiwan has held international training courses in Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP), and last year provided assistance to 12 individuals from Cambodia, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Vietnam to come to Taiwan for a seven-day training. This initiative is helping these countries strengthen the professionalism of their pharmacists and is thus enhancing the quality of pharmaceutical care, the president said. In the future, the government intends to continue carrying out related plans to help even more nations in need, the president added.
In addition to FIP President Buchmann, others in the delegation meeting with President Ma included Pharmaceutical Society of Taiwan President Fangchen Lee (李芳全), Managing Director Hu Oliver Yoa-Pu, Supervisor Mei-Ling Hsiao, Taiwan Society of Health System Pharmacists President Shin-Tarng Deng (鄧新棠), Taipei Pharmacists Association Chairman Yu Wan-Nan (余萬能), and Executive Director Tony Yen-Huei Tarn of the Center for Pharmaceutical Care Development of the Taiwan Pharmacist Association. The group was accompanied to the Presidential Office by Minister of Health Wen-Ta Chiu (邱文達) to meet President Ma. Also attending the meeting was National Security Council Deputy Secretary-General John C. C. Deng (鄧振中).