The International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) Brisbane 2023
81st FIP World Congress of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences
By Dr Vivianne Shih, President, 117th PSS Council
The FIP 2023 was held from 24 through 28 September 2023 in Brisbane, Australia. PSS is one of the 156 member organizations of FIP and I was invited to attend the Council meeting on 23rd and 24th September. During the council meeting, there were new and updated FIP Statements of Policies that are made available namely (a) environmental sustainability within pharmacy, (b) the role of pharmacy in life-course vaccination, and (c) the role of pharmacists in disaster and emergency management. Two other policy statements were also adopted and will be made available soon – the strategic development of medicines information for the benefit of patients and users of medicine and mitigating antimicrobial resistance through antimicrobial stewardship.
I was also deeply honoured to be given the opportunity to present on “the journey of initiating a community pharmacist vaccination programme in Singapore” representing PSS. The FIP programme was packed with various topics relevant to pharmacists and it was interesting to hear from various speakers from different parts of the world, including oral and poster presentations. We managed to meet up with FIP President Paul Sinclair briefly to initiate discussions on how Singapore / PSS can be more involved in the FIP strategies and to explore how we can contribute back to the pharmacy fraternity in supporting other countries through FIP.
Besides work, the Singapore contingent also managed to meet up for a luncheon. There were also numerous receptions in the evenings that provided a great platform to mingle with pharmacists from other pharmacy associations, to explore potential opportunities of how we can work together and just to have fun.
Next year’s FIP will be held in Cape Town, South Africa from 1 to 5 September and the conference theme is “Innovating for the Future of Healthcare”. FIP is an excellent platform to network with pharmacists around the world and to exchange best practices. See you there!
