In The Spotlight
August 2015

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In the spotlight is an initiative by PSS that features pharmacists who excel in their area of practice and have been role models for fellow pharmacists. In this issue, we feature:

 

In The Spotlight August Edition

 

The pharmacist being featured in the August edition of In the Spotlight is Dr. Jonathan Seah, the Infectious Disease (ID)/Antimicrobial Stewardship Programme (ASP) pharmacist from the Changi General Hospital. Jonathan is a true blue NUS pharmacy graduate and has completed his Pharm.D. in NUS, he is also Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist (BCPS) in Infectious Disease. He is highly experienced and has been in the pharmacy field for the past 12 years. Overtime, he developed his interest in Infectious Diseases, HIV, Drug information and Toxicology.

He is extensively involved in the hospital’s multidisciplinary ASP, where he works closely with the microbiologists and ID physicians. ASP entails reviewing the appropriate use of antibiotics in patients and intervening where needed. He is also involved in drafting up antimicrobial guidelines and clinical decision support tools to aid this process of auditing. In addition to the above, he also assists with managing antiretroviral therapy for hospitalized patients and at the outpatient clinic.

 

An interview with Dr. Jonathan Seah:

 

With the changing healthcare landscape, it is challenging to be a pharmacist. If you had only one advice for the younger pharmacist, what would it be?

Be willing to accept challenges, and take them as opportunities to learn and grow. What we learn or experience would stand us in good stead for the future.

Keep an open and inquisitive mind – realise that even seemingly mundane tasks can have learning value if we take the effort to understand why we are doing it. At the same time, seek opportunities to improve the process. Think about how you can contribute to make things better/easier.

There are now many training opportunities available, if you show the right attitude, motivation and willingness to try something challenging.

 

What was the motivation that kept you going as a pharmacist and inspired you to be what you are today?

I had the good fortune to be given opportunities to have many different experiences throughout my career, ranging from administrative duties to running ambulatory clinics.

Over the years I also had the chance to interact with and learn from many different healthcare team colleagues

 

What would be your most memorable moment in your pharmacy career?

I cannot narrow it down to a single defining moment. I am just grateful for the simple thanks from my patients and colleagues. These helped to sustain me when things are hectic and deadlines loom.

Each day, I’m just trying my best to make small contributions that can improve the care of our patients.

To quote Ralph Waldo Emerson:

"To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived; This is to have succeeded"

 

How did your career progression look like?

Right after completing my pre-registration training, I took charge of the Drug Information Service at CGH. In this role, I had the chance to be involved in the national Drug information and Poisoning Centre, where I interacted and learnt from my fellow DI pharmacists from the other hospitals. Also, this was when patient safety started gaining prominence in Singapore, and I was involved in institutional and national medication safety efforts including setting up the hospital medication error reporting system/process, conducting medication safety analysis and error reduction projects, and providing educational talks at conferences.

A good part of my work was also in the CGH Pharmacy and Therapeutics (P&T) committee, reviewing drugs for formulary listing and producing medication use guidelines. This also involved drafting policies in multidisciplinary groups, especially in preparation for the JCI audits. Furthermore, at various times I was part of clinical trials, Wound care, Heart Failure ambulatory clinic and Total Parenteral Nutrition pharmacy teams. All these varied activities provided me with good exposure to appreciate the 'big' picture and to work well with our other healthcare colleagues. I also became involved in the drafting of the MOH guidelines for Management of Poisoning and Overdose, and establishing the Toxicological Society of Singapore.

In 2009, I decided to enhance my clinical competency and was part of the 1st Pharm.D. class at NUS. I truly enjoyed the experience of rotating at almost all the hospitals in Singapore and at locations overseas, and learning from the many preceptors. Thereafter, I became involved with setting up the hospital’s antimicrobial stewardship program, while still involved in Drug Information training rotations, medication safety issues and P&T policy decisions. Recently, to further my knowledge on infectious diseases, I undertook a year-long PGY2 ID pharmacy residency at Strong Memorial Hospital, Rochester, New York.

In a sense, my career took a somewhat different trajectory, from being more involved in committees at an institutional and national level early on and now transitioning towards a specific clinical focus. Throughout, I'm thankful for having the opportunities to learn.

 

So what are your plans for the future?

Having just completed the Infectious Diseases residency, I hope to make meaningful contributions in this specialty area.

 

Contributions made by Jonathan towards the pharmacy profession:

·       National Drug & Poisoning Information Centre Workgroup, member 

·       Ministry of Health (MOH) Patient Safety Workgroup, member

·       MOH Standardisation of Drug-Food Administration Information Workgroup, chairman

·       MOH Clinical Practice Guidelines on Management of Poisoning Workgroup, member

·       MOH National Standards for Hospital Pharmacy Practice workgroup, member

·       Asian Conference on Clinical Pharmacy conference, organising committee, member

  • 23rd Singapore Pharmacy Congress, organising committee, member
  • Preceptor - Polytechnic students, NUS Pharmacy students, pre-registration pharmacists
  • Clinical Tutor- NUS Pharm.D. student rotation