(MENAFN- The Peninsula) The Peninsula
DOHA: Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) will today begin the second Medication Safety Symposium with an aim to build on improving patient safety by focusing on medication safety best practice and continuous quality improvement.
The two-day symposium will also see the launch of a new campaign by HMC's Medication Safety and Quality Center encouraging patients to ask questions about their medications, said Professor Moza Al Hail, Executive Director, Pharmacy Department, HMC told a media briefing yesterday.
The event will bring together a group of international experts and leaders in the field of medication safety. Nine speakers from a variety of healthcare sectors spoke about the best medication safety practices in the region, pharmacovigilance and its importance to Qatar, medication use research and several other patient safety initiatives. It is organised by the Medication Safety and Quality Centre, a unit under the HMC Pharmacy Executive Director Office. 'The symposium will provide a platform for healthcare professionals, researchers, and patient safety experts to discuss medication safety practices and continuous quality improvement and patient care.
This year with nine speakers from Qatar US, UK, Sweden and Kuwait will be speaking on varies topics, said Dr Al Hail.
'We will also launch a new initiative encouraging patients to be active part of their own treatment plans. This will be implemented across all pharmacies and across HMC hospitals. The campaign will encourage them to ask five questions about the medications on changes to make, if to continue, about proper use, how to monitor and on follow up, she added.
The campaign ‘5 Questions to Ask About Your Medications' will be implemented in collaboration with Institutes for Safe Medication Practices Canada. The symposium will also see a presentation on the achievements and future plans of the HMC's Medication Safety and Quality Center by its director Dr Anas Hamad.
Another major focus during the symposium will be a presentation on the ‘Medication Safety Thermometer' initiative which is a National Health Service (NHS) initiative in England and being implemented in the HMC. The NHS's experience in implementing ‘Medication Safety Thermometer,' will be shared during the presentation.
'The Medication Safety Thermometer is a measurement tool for improvement that focuses on medication reconciliation, allergy status, medication omission, and identifying harm from high risk medicines, said Dr Hamad.
As a point of care survey the Medication Safety Thermometer collects data order to identify harm occurring from medication error. Medication Safety Thermometer has been implemented across hundreds of hospitals in England. This we have already started here in HMC recently, we are still collecting data, certainly we can use the data to improve medication safety and our current practices, said Dr Hamad.
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