DOHA: Pharmacy services have expanded significantly to become an integral part of the healthcare system and a patient’s journey to wellness according to Dr Moza Al Hail, Executive Director of Pharmacy at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC).
“Pharmacists now play a pivotal role in patient management. They are accepting greater responsibility for patient outcomes associated with the taking of medication and are evolving their practices to provide enhanced services related to its use,” she said.
The Pharmacy Department at HMC has established several processes to improve efficiency and the ease of service to patients. These include the opening of dedicated pharmacist-led clinics such as the anti-coagulation clinic as well as the introduction of medication therapy management to provide timely and efficient assessment and monitoring of patients who take different types of medications.
Dr Al Hail highlighted three key priority areas as clinical pharmacy, medication safety and pharmacy practice based research, which have gained prominence at HMC in recent years, supporting HMC’s vision of providing the safest, most effective and most compassionate care to patients. Describing the role of clinical pharmacists, she highlighted that they play a key role in influencing drug-related policies and developing treatment guidelines as they are responsible for collecting and analyzing evidence-based information about drugs therapy and evaluating drug effectiveness.
She said: “HMC has established clinical pharmacy teams at each of its eight hospitals all of which are working diligently to ensure the provision of optimum medication for all HMC patients.” She explained that from the start of her career at HMC when she joined as a pharmacist to her current position as Executive Director of the department, she has observed tremendous advances aimed at improving services to patients.
Dr Al Hail is the first Qatari pharmacist to receive a visiting professorship title from the prestigious UK-based Robert Gordon University in recognition of her long standing and dedicated service in the field of pharmacy.The Peninsula
