Pharmex 2013 - Preserving Your Health: A Remedy For Excellence

“Preserving Your Health: A Remedy For Excellence” was the theme for this year Pharmex. Pharmex which stands for Pharmacy Expo was one of the events that held by pharmacy student during the Convocation Expo (ConvEx). The booth was on starting from 19^th till 22^nd September 2013 from 9am to 5pm. 120 students were involved in this community project. The estimated visitors to our booth were around 700.

The mainly focus of this project was to create awareness among the public regard their health issues, give the information about their medications, exposing our profession and role as pharmacist to the public and creating a good relationship with the community. By the end of the event, the entire objectives achieve!

And of course, the special mascot on the first day!!

The materials exhibited can be divided into 5 categories, which are: 

1. Clinical Pharmacy
2. Pharmaceutical Technology
3. Drugs Education
4. Herbal Pharmacy and Traditional Medicine
5. Veterinary Pharmacy

Clinical Pharmacy section gave the student experience in carrying the health screening to the community. The tests carried out are: 

• Body Mass Index (BMI), Body Fat Mass (BFM) and Visceral Fat Area (VFA)
• Blood Pressure Test (BP)
• Waist-hip Ratio (WHR)
• Glucose test
• Cholestrol test. 

With only RM 6, all tests are covered! Plus they can have the counseling session with the expert; lectures and not to be forgotten the 4^th year students. 

In Pharmaceutical Technology section, students showed their skill by preparing the dosage preparations in public and gave explanations on the ingredients used. 

Besides, they also portrayed their care on animals by exhibiting domestic pets, increase public knowledge on keeping pets in Veterinary Pharmacy section.

Students who participated, gained priceless experiences and able to get into the community. In the nutshell, this event not only benefits the community, but also preparing us as the future pharmacist to be. Good job everyone!

For more photo of Pharmex 2013, please click here

PHARMATRADE 2013

The long await Pharmatrade had came back! It was held during USM convocation week that took place on the 19^th to 22^nd September  2013. 

The booth was opened from 9am until 10pm. This event involved about 111 pharmacy students in their first and second year.

The objective of this event were mainly to educate the pharmacy students about entrepreneur skills and improve their personal development such as communication skills and confidence  when interact with the others. It will also gave them chances of learning more about healthcare products and linked it with their  profession as an all rounders pharmacist in the future. 

As for the theme of the event, it is given “The Best Choice For A Better Life ”. A very attractive theme indeed! Variety of great healthcare products and supplements were being sold and marketed. They were even offered a 15% discount for every products!

Those days were exhausting and tiredness took over the committees but they still felt  energetic in promoting and explaining the usage as well as the benefits of each products to the public. Customers from all walks of life came and bought it either for themselves or their family. 

We would like to thank all lecturers, staffs and students that visit Pharmatrade booth and supporting the event by buying the products. Congratulations also to the project director, Nur Safinaz Mukhtar and all Pharmatrade committees for your hard work. No pain, no gain. Hope that the event will always be successful in the future.  

For more photo of PHARMATRADE 2013, please click here

   

Assimilation Week 2013 - Encode Your Enthusiasm, Decode Your Drug Future

The Assimilation Week for session 2013/14 had finally ended (clap). For your information, it was held on 9^th and ended on the 19^th of September 2013. For this year, the theme is ‘Encode Your Enthusiasm, Decode Your Drug Future.’ It means your future in pharmacy depends on your zeal to succeed in it.

Ice-Breaking

The Assimilation Week started off with the Ice-Breaking Session among the juniors on 9^th of September, Monday night at the school’s foyer. During the session, the juniors were divided into ten groups and played games such as ‘Duik-Duik’, Know Your Senior and Team Building. The objective of this event is to let the juniors well-acquainted with each other in preparation for the other activities to come in the assimilation week. The juniors were also given a short briefing about the rest of the week’s activities and were asked to prepare for a performance for the closing ceremony.

S 'n' J Night

The long-time tradition of seniors and juniors were then continued with the Senior and Junior Night on Wednesday night, 11^th of September. In DK X and Y that night, several representatives were asked to give a short talk to the juniors on topics such as MyPSA’s Student Exchange Program and Green Lung. The juniors then went on to search for their seniors and further meet up with their ‘pharmily’. The concept of ‘pharmily’ is like a real family; its members will help and support each other in need. However the seniors would not just accept the juniors (which is also the fun and highlighted part), juniors have to put on performances and interesting acts until his/her senior satisfied and accepted by their seniors. The event ended with a hearty dinner with their respective pharmily at the school’s foyer.

Pharmtastic Race

Several days later, on the 16^th of September, the Pharmtastic Race was carried out around the campus such as DUP, DTSP and the stadium. Here, juniors were required to play games at each checkpoint and obtain a clue for the next checkpoint. Marks were awarded to the groups according to their performance at the checkpoints and the time taken to complete the race, all which will add up with their final performances’ marks during the closing ceremony. Of course, through this activity, we hope that the junior will be able to fit in and at the same time enjoy their years of study in USM.

Closing Ceremony

The long, exhaustive but very enjoyable week was then concluded with the closing ceremony which was held at DUD, on the 18^th of September. Beforehand, each group was assigned to an item, song and place to be incorporated in their performances. The first years’ gave creative performances and showcased their myriad talents such singing, dancing and acting. Some of the seniors also rose up and took the opportunity to perform on that night. The night ended with fabulous prizes given to the winning groups of the highest accumulated marks from both the Pharmtastic Race and the performance earlier that night. Several lucky winners also walked away with prizes from the lucky draw held that night.

Although it was tiring for both seniors and juniors, the Assimilation Week managed to achieve its goals which were to create new friendships and also strengthen bonds between each other. To say that this event was a success is an understatement as it was not only able to accomplish the obvious, but also managed to create memories that will forever be etched in our hearts. Thanks to all the committees and participants to make this event, I can say one of the unforgettable one in our life.


For more photo of Assimilation Week, please click here

NoGAPS 2013

MyPSA NoGAPS had taken place on the 25th to 28th of August, 2013. USM has been chosen to host this year's edition, which was held at the main campus of USM, Gelugor, Pulau Pinang.

The participants were from 8 universities, namely Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM), Cyberjaya University College of Medical Sciences (CUCMS) , AIMST, ASIA Metropolitan University (AMU) , USM, Taylor's University and also  foreign students under the IPSF- Student Exchange Programme. 

Day 1

Registration

The official registration for the participants started at 9 AM on the 25th of August. The participants were divided into 24 groups, each comprised of 11 to 13 participants. They were accommodated with rooms at the Desasiswa Saujana for the ladies and Desasiswa Restu for the guys. 

Ice-breaking

The first event started at 3 PM, which was the ice-breaking event held at DUD. The participants were asked to get in their groups for the first time and they were given tasks to perform together as they get to know each other. The first task was to design a 'war dance' for each group, and later, groups were asked to design a flag representing themselves using the supplied materials and other materials that they brought for this task.

Teams were also asked to make a kolam (traditional hindu art made using coloured rice) based on supplied designs. The creativity and patience of the future pharmacists were challenged in this slot, and the competitive environment brought the team members together to get the best of their tasks within a short time. All in all the ice-breaking ceremony successfully brought the team members together, and as the name implies, broke new grounds for their new-found friendships.

For more photos on ice breaking, click here.

Opening Ceremony

The Opening Ceremony was held at night. With the themed of 'Kayangan' (The Kingdom of The Sky), the ceremony was filled with amazing performances which included 'Welcoming Words' and the traditional dances of the Malay Zapin, Chinese Fan Dance, Indian , and Sarawakian Ethnic dance, which were performed by students of PPSF USM from different racial backgrounds.

The event was graced by the presence of the Vice Chancellor of USM, Dato' Omar Osman. In his officiating speech, he urged all the future pharmacists to come together, equip themselves with the 9 main characteristics of good pharmacists, to be strong internally and to move beyond the national pharmaceutical framework to a wider network, worldwide. The VC also called upon all the future pharmacists to prepare themselves with the essence of internationally relevant values, to become active national players and as such be able to move beyond and bring the pharmacy profession to the next level.

The opening ceremony was successfully concluded and after that the teams were given their tasks for the 'Impromptu' event happening on the third day. With that, the first day of NoGAPS 2013 ended.

For more photos on opening ceremony, click here.

Day 2

Workshops 

It’s knowledge-harvesting time! The second day of NoGAPS started off with two workshops in the morning, the first one being compulsory for all the participants, which was entitled 'Patient Counselling Education', which focused on the techniques and ethics in patient counselling,  delivered by Prof. Dr. Azmi Shariff.

The next slot was divided into 5  different workshops. The MYPSA-IPSF Workshop was presented by Mr Fakarul Razi, President of MYPSA, while  'Antibiotic Frenzy' is  a competition based on antimicrobial therapy case study. The third workshop is titled 'Halal Seminar', discussing on the issue of Halal medicine nationally and internationally, presented by Prof. Dr. Zhari Ismail who is also the Cofounder of the Halal Index. In  Pharmacy Research Excursion, participants  were taken to visit research centres around USM namely Centre of Drug Research, Molecular Modelling Lab, National Poison Centre, and Centre for Advanced Analytical Toxicology Services (formerly known as doping control centre) , and were given the rare chance to know more about the researches done and career opportunities in the centres. The last workshop that the participants could choose from was Dosage Competition where participants get to show off their skills and techniques in compounding. 

For more photos on workshops, click here.

Pharmtastic Race 

The latter part of the day was filled with thrill as the Pharmtastic Race kicked off at 2 PM. The NoGAPS 2013's version of 'The Amazing Race' was exhilarating, with challenging tasks at checkpoints and the distance they had to run in between. The participants were left breathless as they reach the pit stop at the Queensbay Mall. The race concluded at 7 PM. 

For more photos on Pharmtastic Race, click here.

Battle of the Universities (BOU) 

Later in the evening, The Battle of Universities was held. The months of preparation from the universities' representatives were finally laid out to the audience in their mind-blowing performances. The finalists who performed that night were USM (Korea), Taylor's University (Portugal), AIMST (Argentina) and IIUM (Japan). Their performances were judged by representatives from each university, as well as votes by the audience. Alas, the K-POP dance performance by USM was nominated the winner of the BOU this year. 

For videos on BOU, click here.

Day 3

Community Outreach Programme (COP): Jalinan Mesra, Siswa Lestari

Day 3 starts as early as 7 AM at which participants were required to start to gather at Padang Kawad USM before taking bus to Jelutong for Community Outreach Programme (COP). The buses departed at 7.30 AM and arrived at Mutiara Idaman I flat in Jelutong where the COP will be held at around 8 AM. This programme was organized in collaboration with Yayasan Bina Ilmu. It consisted of a forum, ‘gotong-royong’, free health screening, demonstration on making a few dosage forms, health exhibition and health education for kids. Aside from that, delicious briyani rice with chicken curry was provided for all committees, participants as well as residents of Mutiara Idaman I who joined the crowd. 

Special guests of the day were Datuk Seri Dr. Hilmi Yahaya, Deputy Minister of Health, Datuk Hajah Poziah Binti Haji Abdul Rahman, Deputy Director of Jabatan Penerangan Malaysia, Prof. Dato’ Dr. See Ching Mey, Vice Chancellor of Industrial and Community Outreach Division of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Tuan Haji Ishak, Director of Jabatan Penerangan Pulau Pinang, Dato’ Abdul Rashid Ismail, Chairman of Yayasan Bina Ilmu Pulau Pinang, Prof. Munavvar Zubaid Ali Sattar, Dean of School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, USM as well as few other lecturers, Encik Farouk, Vice Chairman of 1Malaysia, Encik Othman bin Daud, Chairman of Residents’ Association of Mutiara Idaman I Flat and last but not least Encik Ahmad Syauqi Abdollah, Project Director of NoGAPS 2013. The COP was officiated by Datuk Seri Dr. Hilmi Yahaya, Deputy Minister of Health which marked the end of the opening ceremony which was quickly followed by a forum entitled ‘Memperkaya Jati Diri Ke Arah Transformasi’ by Jabatan Penerangan Malaysia in collaboration with School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, USM. Meanwhile, all other activities as mentioned above were carried out simultaneously which gives everyone a variety of choice of whether to enjoy the forum, check their blood sugar level and more, watch how emulsion and a few other dosage forms are compounded or bring their kids to join some fun activities such as colouring contest. 

For more photos on COP, click here.

Forum Session

The forum session entitled ‘Future Pharmacist and Practice Innovation:Challenges and Opportunities’ was held in Dewan Utama Desasiswa (DUD). It started at 2.45 PM and ended at 4.15 PM. Panelists were the dean of School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, USM, Prof Munavvar Zubaid Ali Sattar, deputy dean of School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, USM, Dr. Nurzalina Abdul Karim Khan, (Deputy Dean (Academic), School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, USM), Mr Mohd Ikhwan Hashim (Pharmacy Officer of Clinical Department, Advanced Medical & Dental Institute, USM), Mr Jaya Muneswarao a/l Ramadoo @ Devudu (Head of Clinical Pharmacy Department , Hospital Kulim). The forum was moderated by Encik Fakarul Radzi, Chairman of Malaysian Pharmacy Students Association (MyPSA). Among the points highlighted during the forum were qualities and priorities of a good pharmacist, misperceptions about pharmacists and more. Other than that, Dr. Nurzalina also shared her working experience as a fresh graduate. It was a highly informative forum which gave insights about pharmacist profession today.

For more photos on forum session, clic here.

Patient Counseling Education (PCE) Competition

This competition started shortly after the forum session ended. The venue was also in DUD. For this competition, each participating universities in NoGAPS 2013 must send a representative and it had to be one representative only. In this competition, the participants will be given a patient to counsel. The cases were given to respective participants 30 minutes before their turns during which they were quarantined. The counseling session was then recorded to be sent to the judges which were Dr. Azmi Shariff (position) and Dr. Balamurugan (position). The competition was won by Siti Sarah Kusyairi from International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM). The first runner-up was Syazriyanti Izzati from Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) and the second runner-up was Tan Leong Seng from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).

Annual Grand Meeting of MyPSA (Report)

This event was scheduled to be from 2 PM to 6 PM which means it was held at the same time as the forum session and PCE competition. This annual grand meeting took place in Dewan Kuliah X of the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, USM. Those involved were only committee members of MyPSA.

For more photos on AGM, click here.

Impromptu Preparation

Another slot which also took place from 2 PM to 6 PM was impromptu preparation for PharmaChef held outside DUD. Each groups were required to cook a main dish and a dessert. The main dish would be a traditional dish from one of the main races in Malaysia which will be assigned to each group. As for the dessert, a list was made and the groups get to choose which dessert they would like to make based on ‘first come, first serve’ basis. While cooking, group members are required to record a video of the cooking process to be presented later at night. Judges for PharmaChef were a representative from Food & Beverages Department and 2 representatives from Creative U committee.

Participants not involved were required to attend the forum session. Attendance for PCE Competition was optional in order to give time for groups involved in Primadona Reborn, Pharmacist Next Top Designer and Pharmadance to make preparation for to present later at night.

Impromptu

This was the awaited session of the day in which the assigned tasks for all groups will be presented. It started at 8.45 PM with the Pharmadance Group A (4 groups). Next was the video presentation by groups involved in PharmChef (5 groups) followed by sketches for Primadona Reborn (7 groups) whereby the participants were required to make a parody of a scene in a P. Ramlee movie which the title is given. The parody had to be in three different emotions.

After having a good laugh from the parodies, audience were then served with the fascinating designs by groups involved in Pharmacy Next Top Designer (4 groups). The impromptu slot started with performances full of energy and style, so did how the slot ended as another 4 groups from Pharmdance Group B rock the stage.  

 

The winners for Primadona Reborn and Pharmadance was determined right after the performances of all the groups in the particular division by the audience through cheering. Scream-meter was used and the group which got the loudest cheer from the audience was nominated the winner. Primadona Reborn was won by Sophisticated Salmonella while Mysterious Mycobacteria and Nice Neisseria were nominated as winners for Group A and B respectively. As for Pharmachef, winner was determined by the judges through a few criteria such as creativity, teamwork, deliciousness and cleanliness. It was Beautiful Bacillus which won the heart of the judges. As for Pharmacist Next Top Designer, judging criteria were creativity, teamwork, material mainly used and the catwalk. The group with the best design was Shiny Staphylococcus. Pharmadance did not end at day 3, winners from Pharmadance Group A & B were to perform during Gala Night and the best performance was then to be decided by a judge as well as the audience during Gala Night through the loudest cheer.

For more photos on Impromtu, click here.

Day 4

Gala night

The grand finale of NoGaps 2013 was the Gala Night which was held at Georgetown City Hotel. All committees and participants dolled up for the dinner themed “Glitz and Blitz”. The event was officiated by our school’s dean, Prof. Dr Munavvar Zubaid.

Soon after, the performances started off with the final round of Pharmadance which revealed some great talents in these future pharmacists. It was a really tough competition as both groups were performing so well on stage. There were also singing performances with the theme ‘3 Bangsa 1 Suara’, performed by some of USM Pharmacy’s first and second year students.  It was a wonderful performance overall.

But the highlight of the night was most probably the theatre performance which the performers have been practicing for months. Set in the era before cigarette was made and called cigarette, the theatre was about how ‘magic sticks’ (cigarettes, actually) was first introduced and how the production managed to expand despite the locals knowing the health consequences of the ‘sticks’ and tried to destroy the factory. It was quite an interesting storyline and the line of actors all did a great job!

The night was also filled with lucky draws and prize giving for the activities that were held along the week. Gala Night was definitely fun and memorable, and marked the end of NoGaps 2013! 

For more photos on Gala Night, click here.