Career opportunity for Pharm D Candidates

Pharm D Career opportunity

The prime sectors which need the service of Pharm Ds are the pharmaceutical industries. They make new medicines and they need the professionals first than any other sector. Then the second priority comes to the hospitals of pharmacies where it is used or distributed. Production is may be one among ten divisions of an industry where Pharm Ds may not be needed.

The numerous and diverse career options available to Pharm D students:

1. Clinical Research

1. Clinical Research : Clinical research is a branch of medical science that determines the safety and effectiveness of medications, devices, diagnostic products and treatment regimens intended for human use. These may be used for prevention, treatment, diagnosis or for relieving symptoms of a disease. The term clinical research refers to the entire bibliography of a drug/device/biologic, in fact any test article from its inception in the lab to its introduction to the consumer market and beyond. Once the promising candidate or the molecule is identified in the lab, it is subjected to pre-clinical studies or animal studies where different aspects of the test
(including its safety toxicity if applicable and efficacy, if possible at this early stage) are studied. The focus of clinical research is wide enough to include important items such as data management, medical writing, regulatory consultation, and biostatistics.

2. Pharmacovigilance

Pharmacovigilance (abbreviated PV or PhV) is the pharmacological science relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects, particularly long-term and short-term side effects of medicines. Generally speaking, pharmacovigilance is the science of collecting, monitoring, researching, assessing and evaluating information from healthcare providers and patients on the adverse effects of medications, biological products, herbalism and traditional medicines with a view to:\

identifying new information about hazards associated with medicines and
2) preventing harm to patients.

3. Research & Development

Research & Development: The phrase research and development refers to the “creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of knowledge to devise new applications”.

4. Medical Writing

Medical Writing: Is the activity of producing scientific documentation by a specialized writer. The medical writer typically is not one of the scientists or doctors who performed the research. A medical writer, working with doctors, scientists, and other subject matter experts, creates documents that effectively and clearly describe research results, product use and other medical
information. The medical writer also makes sure the documents comply with regulatory, journal, or other guidelines in terms of content, format and structure.

5. Product Managers:

A product manager investigates, selects, and develops products for an organization, performing the activities of product management.

6. Regulatory affairs:

Regulatory Affairs (RA), also called Government Affairs, is a profession within regulated industries, such as pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Regulatory Affairs professionals usually have responsibility for the following general areas:
Ensuring that their companies comply with all of the regulations and laws pertaining to their business.

Working with federal, state, and local regulatory agencies and personnel on specific issues affecting their business. i.e. working with such agencies as the Food and Drug Administration or European Medicines Agency (pharmaceuticals and medical devices); The Department of Energy; or the Securities and Exchange Commission (banking).
Advising their companies on the regulatory aspects and climate that would affect proposed activities. i.e. describing the “regulatory climate” around issues such as the promotion of prescription drugs and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.

7. Correspondents & Trainers

8. Top level medical representatives

9. Academics

10. Community Pharmacy:

A community pharmacy is a community-based pharmacy. The main responsibilities of a community pharmacy include appropriate procurement, storage, dispensing, and documentation of medicines.

In compliance with the vision of the community pharmacy section of the International Pharmaceutical Federation, community pharmacists should
1. be experts in pharmaceutical care, pharmacotherapy, and health promotion.
2. be professional communicators with patients, other healthcare providers, and decision makers.

3. deliver good quality in products, services, and communication.
4. document their actions and make descriptions and publications.
The above mentioned requirement is being fulfilled by the PharmD course.

11.Geriatric Pharmacy:

Geriatrics is a sub-specialty of internal medicine and family medicine
that focuses on health care of elderly people. It aims to promote health by preventing and treating

diseases and disabilities in older adults.

12. Governmental agencies

13. Home Health Care:

Home Care, (also referred to as domiciliary care or social care), is health care or supportive care provided in the patient’s home by healthcare professionals (often referred to as home health care or formal care. Often, the term home health care is used to distinguish non-medical care or custodial care, which is care that is provided by persons who are not nurses, doctors, or other licensed medical personnel, as opposed to home health care that is provided by licensed personnel.

14. Hospital Pharmacy:

A hospital pharmacy is concerned with pharmacy service to all types of hospital and differs considerably from a community pharmacy. Some pharmacists in hospital pharmacies may have more complex clinical medication management issues whereas pharmacists in community pharmacies often have more complex business and customer relations issues. Because of the complexity of the medication use system, many pharmacists practicing in hospitals gain more education and training after pharmacy school through a pharmacy practice
residency and sometimes followed by another residency in a specific area.

15. Managed Care:

The term managed care is used in the United States to describe a variety of techniques intended to reduce the cost of providing health benefits and improve the quality of care (“managed care techniques”) for organizations that use those techniques or provide them as services to other organizations (“managed care organization” or “MCO”), or to describe systems of financing and delivering health care to enrollees organized around managed care techniques
and concepts (“managed care delivery systems”). According to the United States National Library of Medicine, the term “managed care” encompasses programs:
…intended to reduce unnecessary health care costs through a variety of mechanisms, including:

economic incentives for physicians and patients to select less costly forms of care; programs for reviewing the medical necessity of specific services; increased beneficiary cost sharing; controls on inpatient admissions and lengths of stay; the establishment of cost-sharing incentives for outpatient surgery; selective contracting with health care providers; and the intensive
management of high-cost health care cases.

16. Pharmacoeconomics:

Refers to the scientific discipline that compares the value of one pharmaceutical drug or drug therapy to another. It is a sub-discipline of Health economics. A pharmacoeconomic study evaluates the cost (expressed in monetary terms) and effects (expressed in terms of monetary value, efficacy or enhanced quality of life) of a pharmaceutical product. We can distinguish several types of pharmacoeconomic evaluation: cost-minimization analysis, cost-benefit analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis and cost-utility analysis. Pharmacoeconomic studies serve to guide optimal healthcare resource allocation, in a standardized and scientifically grounded manner. One important consideration in a pharmacoeconomic evaluation is to decide the perspective from which the analysis should be conducted (such as institutional or societal).

Mahalingam A , Healthcare Admn & Academics  / TwinTech Academy, Chennai

eMail : mahali@mahali.in / Mobile : 97104 85295