Consider It a Fair Exchange

By Kukla Vera on July 17, 2009 1:16 PM

While the small African nation of Ghana recently was all over the news thanks to a visit from President Barack Obama, three Ghanaians saw the coverage of the visit some 8,000 miles away in Los Angeles.

“We weren’t there for the visit itself, but we saw the preparation and excitement even before we left,” said Daniel Antwi, one of three visiting students doing an exchange program at the USC School of Pharmacy this summer.

Antwi worked last summer with USC Pharm.D. student Bonnie Hui, who took part in an exchange in Ghana that included work on a national campaign, organized by the Ghana Pharmacy Student Association, that promoted rational use of drugs. Antwi was the student coordinator of the project.

Now, Hui, along with other USC students and faculty, is hosting Antwi and his colleagues, Constance Cobbold and Mary Senti, providing them with an opportunity to see how pharmacy is practiced in the United States.

Cobbold noticed that community pharmacies in the United States are generally organized quite differently than in Ghana. “In Ghana, everything is behind the counter - including over-the-counter products. Patients cannot access these without the help of the pharmacy staff,” said Cobbold, who is in her third year of pharmacy school.

The students are seeing a broad view of the American pharmacy experience - spending time in the school’s pharmacies on the USC campus, other area community pharmacy sites and hospital sites. During a visit to the USC Plaza Pharmacy on the Health Sciences campus, Senti was intrigued by the robotic system used to count, package and label medications. “This is very different from Ghana where we don’t have this kind of equipment. It is very efficient.”

The students also visited the USC Travel Clinic where pharmacists, certified by the International Society of Travel Medicine, advise travelers on a host of health topics in preparation for future travel. While the clinic provides vaccinations and necessary medications, it also reviews personal health issues that might impact travel destinations and activity decisions. Said Antwi, “We don’t have anything like that in Ghana.”

The students also noted the availability of a variety of drugs in the U.S. pharmacies. In contrast, they noted that Ghanaian pharmacies primarily stock generic drugs.

Senti and Antwi just completed their bachelor’s degrees in pharmacy. When they return to Ghana, they will begin an 18-month internship that will culminate with a board exam for certification as a pharmacist. The students graduated from the Kwame Nhrumh University of Science and Techonology in Kumasi City, where Cobbold is a student. The visitors noted that their pharmacy program was very different from the USC program in which students pursue a four-year postgraduate Pharm.D. degree.

The exchange program is conducted through the International Pharmaceutical Students Federation.

TAGS: globalization

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