The Pharmaceutical Society of Singapore’s Young Pharmacist Chapter, or YPC, hosted its annual Pharmacy Forum event this past February 27th, 2019. With over 100 pharmacists in attendance, visitors gathered at the National Cancer Center Auditorium in Singapore to listen to a discussion panel and ask questions about the latest developments of information technology in pharmacy.
Lindsay Nickel, Head of Partnerships & Alliances at mClinica, was joined on the panel by Dr. Kevin Yap, Senior Lecturer in Public Health at La Trobe University, and Mr. Kenneth Leung, healthcare data analyst and founder of Medview.
Dr. Yap is an interdisciplinary cyber-pharmacist and digital health researcher at the School of Psychology & Public Health of La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. His interests span the digital healthcare innovation cycle, working to enhance medication management and the flow of drug-related information, from telemedicine to social media.
Mr. Kenneth Leung is a healthcare data analyst and founder of Mediview, an online drug image platform that facilitates drug identification. Today, Mediview is nation-wide and houses over 1000 high quality images from local formularies, with more than 400 unique users daily.
During the panel, Nickel discussed mClinica’s three mobile platforms, SwipeRx, Connect, and SnapRx. Her discussion highlighted how these applications are building the capacity of the pharmacy workforce, strengthening the medication supply chain, and generating data from the smallest mom-and-pop pharmacy on up.
The audience had a chance to ask panelists questions about the shifting role of the pharmacist in the era of IT advancement, AI, and big data. Panelists considered factors supporting the rise of innovative health tech startups in Southeast Asia, including internet and smartphone penetration and the shift towards cloud-based services. Lastly, the panelists offered advice to pharmacists interested in a career shift, pointing out the varied skills of a pharmacist are useful in innovation and health tech.
“It’s wonderful to have the opportunity to speak at this event and meet the pharmacists who are members of the Pharmaceutical Society of Singapore YPC,” Nickel shares, “particularly in a country that is leading the way when it comes to investing in, supporting, and implementing digital health and technological innovation.”
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