Tomorrow, Pharmacists & Pharmacy students around globe will celebrate World Pharmacists Day.
World Pharmacists Day highlights the role of pharmacists in Public Health and the positive benefits they
offer when it comes to health. Each year welcomes a new theme, the theme of this year is: “Transforming
global health”
This year sees our 10th World Pharmacists Day. The theme of this year aims to show how pharmacists are
transforming and prolonging people’s lives by developing safe and effective medicines and vaccines. It also
highlights how pharmacists are transforming health through a variety of health services in their communities,
including advising on healthy living, vaccinating to prevent disease, and ensuring that medicines are taken
correctly, thereby managing diseases well and improving quality of life.
As the global pandemic continues to grow, with the number of cases worldwide and in India- rising daily,
patients are looking towards pharmacists for support and expertise as “Pharmacists are the most accessible
health care professionals globally and are uniquely trained to be able to impact medication safety at the
individual patient level through medication management skills that are part of the clinical pharmacist’s role.
“Medicines today have great power to heal and to improve the quality of life but medicines also may do
serious harm if not taken correctly. This is where the role of the pharmacist is most important. Pharmacists
are experts in helping patients get the most out of today’s complicated medications. You might not realize
this, but they do much more than dispensing medication. For each prescription dispensed, your pharmacist
must check to see that the information provided by the prescriber is complete, that the new medication will
not interact with other medications you are taking, that the medication and dosage are appropriate for your
health condition and that you understand the proper way to store and take the medication.” Dr. Sai Kumar
Katam, National President of Doctor of Pharmacy Association.
“Taking your medication correctly is one of the best ways to decrease your health care costs. Each year,
thousands of people end up in the hospital, fail to get better and waste money than because they did not take
their medication properly.” Dr. Sai Kumar Katam.
Pharmacists have made an outstanding contribution as front-line health-care workers during these
unprecedented times. Pharmacists all over the world are working tirelessly to stop the spread of the coronavirus
and to ensure people continue to have access to medicines they need. Thank you, to each and every pharmacist
who put themselves in harm’s way to serve their patients and who rose to the occasion without exception.
For the Doctor of Pharmacy Association, this year’s theme is very important because it highlights the
varied, useful and impactful roles that the pharmacist plays in healthcare delivery in the country. This year
Doctor of Pharmacy Association is organizing several awareness programs on the occasion of world
pharmacist day on 25th Sept to showcase the good work pharmacists do in helping to improve the health of
people.
“Doctor of Pharmacy Association is reaching out to other health care providers and policy makers to bring
awareness about the health and economic benefits of recognizing pharmacists as health care providers and
facilitating access to pharmacists’ patient care services. Currently pharmacists are an underutilized resource
in our healthcare system. Recognizing pharmacists as healthcare provider will help change the face of
pharmacists. Patients would get the best care they need from the most appropriate providers, allowing
physicians to see more patients, and doing what only physicians can do—which is diagnose. We believe
that pharmacists are uniquely positioned to help meet the top goals: providing convenient, expanded access
to medical care and controlling costs”.
History of World Pharmacists Day: World Pharmacists Day was the brainchild of the (FIP) International
Pharmaceutical Federation. At the 2009 FIP Congress in Istanbul, Turkey, the Turkish Pharmacists
Association suggested to annually celebrate a World Pharmacists Day, to be organized on September 25 (the
day that FIP was founded in 1912).This proposal was unanimously accepted by the Council and since 2010,
World Pharmacists Day has been celebrated.
