September 21, 2022

Overseas fellows visit Northern Health

Fleming Fund fellows recently visited Northern Health to observe Pharmacy and Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) services.

The Fleming Fund is a UK aid program that supports low- or middle-income countries in Asia and Africa by building the capacity of clinicians in these regions.

During their three-day visit to Northern Health, the fellows from Pakistan, Nepal and Timor Leste, participated in training activities to strengthen their data analytic skills, and to learn about using data to improve antimicrobial prescribing and dispensing practices in the hospital. The fellows also visited the pharmacy, shadowed clinical pharmacists on the wards, and attended AMS rounds on the wards.

The visit provided opportunities for the fellows to network with experts in the AMS field, build closer relationships with their mentors, and to complete specific training tasks under their workplans.

The fellows are pharmacists and policymakers from the Ministry of Health who play an important role in implementing Antimicrobial Consumption (AMC) and Antimicrobial Use (ASU) surveillance systems in their countries.

Vinod Chellaram, Director of Pharmacy, together with Deanna Guy, Jier Nguyen, Deputy Directors of Pharmacy, and Jeff Khoshaba, Education Lead in Pharmacy, welcomed the fellows to Northern Health.

“All the fellows were very impressed with the AMS program at Northern Health,” Vinod said.

“They thoroughly enjoyed the AMS rounds – seeing a highly trained clinical pharmacist in action contributing to medication safety. The experience was an eye-opener for them – it inspired them to think differently about clinical pharmacy workforce development.”

The fellows have since returned to their home countries, where they will finish their fellowships at the end of the year. They will continue in their respective roles to advocate for antimicrobial resistance policies, build national AMC systems, and pilot hospital antimicrobial stewardship programs.

Featured image: Overseas fellows at Northern Health