-Conduct free medical screening for Surulere Residents
Information on the utilisation of smartphones and other digital health devices for improved medication therapy management took the centre stage on Wednesday, at the Surulere Local Government Area Secretariat, as members of the Association of Hospital and Administrative Pharmacists of Nigeria (AHAPN) Lagos State branch, celebrated the association’s day in the 2019 Lagos PSN Scientific Week.
The 2019 Lagos AHAPN Day, which commenced with a walk against drug abuse, from the Surulere Secretariat round the Shitta environs, also featured free medical screening, and different health talks on the effective use of ICT for improved medication therapy management.
Top among the dignitaries that graced the programme were: Dr Moyosore Adejumo, director of Pharmaceutical Services, Lagos State: Pharm. Bolanle Adeniran, chairman, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria(PSN) Lagos State Chapter; Dr Rahamat Odesesan, medical officer of health, Surulere LGA; Pharm. Titilayo Onedo, chairman, Lagos AHAPN; Pharm. Modupe Oyawole, deputy director of Pharmaceutical services, LASUTH, among others.
Speaking at the event, Adejumo appreciated the Surulere residents for turning out en mass for the programme, while she solicited their support for the new administration of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, noting that one of the ways of showing their loyalty to him is by keeping their environment clean to prevent diseases and promote healthy living.
The number one pharmacist in Lagos also urged the people to always pay close attention to their health in that once they discover any strange development in their bodies, they should promptly visit the nearest primary health centre, and desist from self medication, because prevention is better than cure.
For the Lagos PSN chairman, her speech was centred on the roles and identification of a pharmacist in the hospital, while she enlightened them on how they can differentiate a pharmacist from a doctor or a nurse.
Addressing the participants earlier, Pharm. Onedo, expressed the association’s delight with the people while explaining reasons for their visit to the area. She said they were there to educate people on how to use their smartphones for proper management of their health, as there are many things they can do with their smartphones than chatting.
“There is so much to be done with information technology, a lot of us have this technology but we don’t know the benefit of what they can do for us. For instance, most people carry smartphones and they don’t know its usefulness than just to receive calls. We are here today to tell them that with smartphones, one can access so much information, on social media and other useful sites.
One of such beneficial platforms to visit is the newly created Hospital Pharmacist Facebook page, called “Talk to your Pharmacist”. It was created because there are lots of misinformation out there about medication use and we want to use the Facebook page to engage the community to be able to disseminate the appropriate information on medication use.
Commenting on the theme of the programme, “ICT in medication therapy management”, Onedo noted some available ICT tools that can be used by individuals for health management. “There is the digital blood pressure monitoring device, even the glucose monitoring device is very important to have. You don’t need to get to the hospital like it use to be in those days, where if you don’t get to the hospital, you cannot know your glucose level, if one has diabetes or high blood pressure .
“If you monitor in your home by yourself, it makes one to be more discipline and it makes you to be able to take charge of your own health. In fact it will enable you can check the things that you are doing that you are not meant to do, if you wait till when you get to the hospital to do these test, it is counterproductive”, she stated.
Pharm. (Mrs) Yewande Olorunshola, chairman planning committee, noted the improvement made on the 2019 AHAPN Day compared with the previous ones, as they have taken a step further in latching on to digital technology with the live streaming of the programme for public view through Facebook.
“The theme of this year is leveraging on digital technology to impact our practice as well as our patients. Now you can stream the programme live, even for our colleagues that are not here, and those ones that are in America can now follow us through our Facebook page.
Now we are expecting people to ask questions, and we will send the answers to their individual me messengers. We want employ the use of ICT on drug therapy to improve patient healthcare and also to improve pharmacy practice.Now that we are online, we can interact with colleagues all over the world, latest drugs and their side effects.
Other speakers who spoke on different health talks at the programme include: Pharm.(Mrs) Oyinlade Kehinde; Pharm. Chris UPharm (Mrs) Modupe Oyawola: Pharm. Kingsley Okwunife; Pharm.Bolaji Oguntimeyin and Pharm.Ayo Olaniyi.
