Pharmacists Will Be Included into Certification Criteria of Diabetes Shared Care Network

Pharmacists will be included into certification criteria of Diabetes Shared Care Network

Subtitle:
 Bureau of Health Promotion affirmed publicly the importance of pharmacy care
 Taiwan Pharmacist Association encouraged pharmacists to participate in the CDE certification
Content:
 Taiwan Pharmacist Association (TPA) invited Taiwanese Association of Diabetes Educators (TADE) and their cadres to discuss the topic of “Importance of the role of pharmacists in Diabetes Care” on April 5th. The section chief of Bureau of Health Promotion, Department of Health, R.O.C. (Taiwan), Ye, xiao-wen, pointed out that pharmacists are always included in “Diabetes Shared Care Network”. Regarding to how pharmacists get the certification as well as other medical personnel does, they will respect the final implementation guidelines that TPA and TADE work together to negotiate. Li,su-pien, the chairman of TPA, emphasized that it would be the best protection for patients with diabetes to ensure their drug safety and quality when we include pharmacy care into diabetes shared care network.

According to “the Diabetes Shared Care guidelines manual”, pharmacists belong to one of them, Bureau of Health Promotion promised to list pharmacists into medical personnel certified criterion of Diabetes Shared Care Network officially.

With respect to the training courses on “Diabetes Care, TPA and TADE will cooperate and encourage pharmacists to participate in the certification of Certified Diabetes Educator (CDE). Besides, they also plan to set mutual certified programs to get mutual benefit and assistance so that it is easier to gain the target of medical shared care.

Chen and Hung ,two CDE qualified pharmacists, indicated that at this moment it is an important issue how to combine pharmacists’ professional knowledge and “Diabetes Shared Care Network” to allow DM patients to get more appropriate and better quality of medical care.

The chairmen of TADE, Yu,Gien-liey, said that to develop team cared model which is formed together with pharmacists, physicians, nurses, and nutritionists for most hospitals and dispensary is the imperative trend.

Meanwhile, there are two niches for pharmacists to join in the Diabetes Shared Care. One is the ratio of DM care of basal dispensary decreased to almost 20%, and the other one is the increasing attention and support from the Bureau of Health Promotion.   

“Diabetes Care” is a comprehensive treatment that combines medical, medicine, diet, sport, education, and psychological support, meaning that it is impossible that only a single medical service can offer the whole medical care. The roles of pharmacists in the DM care include screening high risk patients, assessing the appropriateness of current drug treatment, strengthening the knowledge of the treatment, Referrals to other medical service, follow-up prognosis, evaluating drug interactions in a prescription, to adjust doses based on patients’ liver and kidney functions, monitoring the therapeutical concentrations, adverse effects assessment and recommendations, to enhance the compliance, and to reduce drug-related problems. All of above can’t be missed in the Diabetes Shared Care.

As mentioned above, the chairman Li therefore consistently endeavored and pushed that we pharmacists should voluntarily and actively attend the “Diabetes Shared Care Network” since we can elaborate our medical knowledge and create another professional image.