US/Thai Consortium Meeting and Faculty Visits
College of Pharmacy, University of Florida

Dr. Earlene Lipowski, Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacy Health Care Administration, visited Thailand (June to September, 2002) to represent the University of Florida at the US/Thai Consortium for the Development of Pharmaceutical Education in Thailand and then to visit with faculty of pharmacy from many of the universities as a visiting faculty member.

The US/Thai Consortium Meeting was held in Bangkok on June 24-26, 2002 and featured two main types of activities. The first was information exchange and the second was a discussion of the US-Thai Consortium Past, Present and Future. The information exchange component included a panel on Challenges and Innovations in Pharmaceutical Education that was presented, in part, by Dr. Lipowski.

After the conference, Dr. Lipowski visited with ten of the twelve Pharmacy Schools in Thailand. By the end of her visit Dr. Lipowski offered 71 hours of lectures and 60 hours of scheduled workshops and discussion sessions at 10 different universities. Her presentations included ten different subject areas, such as Medication Errors, Patient Perceptions of PC, Implementing PC, US Healthcare and Rx Benefit Scheme and audiences ranged from undergraduate pharmacy classes to graduate students, faculty, pharmacy practitioners, physicians and government administrators. For each hour teaching, Dr. Lipowski devoted many more hours to touring hospitals, public health clinics and community pharmacy outlets in all areas of the country: north and south, rural and urban, modern and traditional.

Dr. Lipowski was invited to serve as a co-advisor for Hathaikan Chowwanapoonpohn, a Ph.D. candidate and instructor at Chiang Mai University. Hathaikan has secured funding for a period of study in the US and currently is spending six months here at the University of Florida.

Dr. Donna Berardo, Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacy Health Care Administration, was invited by Silpakorn University and the Royal Thai Government to present a four day workshop on Pharmacists Professional Communications in September 2002. The workshop was attended by 105 practicing Thai pharmacists. Dr. Berardo worked with the pharmacy faculty at Silpakorn the day before the workshop to be sure that the cases used in the small group sessions of the workshop were appropriate for the medications in Thailand, which are somewhat different from those in the United States.

In addition to the workshop at Silpakorn University, Dr. Berardo visited faculty in the College of Pharmacy at Chiang Mai University and local pharmacies to see the vast array of western and herbal medicines available.