School of Pharmacy host Centenary Conference

On 19 September the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences launched their centenary celebrations with a Centenary Conference in the Haydn Ellis building. The event marked a hundred years of scholarly excellence and reflected on the future challenges and opportunities for pharmacy.

As such several high profile guests were invited to speak. After an introduction from Head of School, Professor Mark Gumbleton, the Minister for Health and Social Services, Vaughan Gething AM talked about the future of pharmacy in Wales and the excellent work being done by Cardiff University in training the pharmacists of the future.

“The School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences is, rightly, acknowledged as one of the top UK schools of Pharmacy,” he said, adding, “As part of multi-professional teams working in our communities pharmacists provide a hugely valued service by helping to manage ongoing conditions, dispensing advice and prescriptions, and offering the Common Ailments Service.”

Following on from the minister’s speech, the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for Wales, Andrew Evans built on these ideas, describing the road map for pharmacy towards 2030 when pharmacists will improve patient knowledge and knowledge of their medicines, focus on optimising therapeutic outcomes using tools that include prescribing, and drive innovation and equitable access to medicines, providing seamless care.

The final speaker was Gino Martini, RPS Chief Scientist, who spoke about the way treatments will change in the coming decades and how that will impact the role of the pharmacist. He also presented Professor Gumbleton with a 100^th birthday card for the school.

In the foyer area the School's researchers were on hand with demonstrations of their work. Doctors Oliver Castell, Sion Coulman and Chris Thomas were in attendance talking about their pioneering work on human skin research, and there was a historical exhibit taking the guests through one hundred years of pharmacy with historical artefacts.

Of the day, Professor Gumbleton said, “Today we looked to the future and how as a leading School of Pharmacy we can continue to shape, and adapt to, the education and training required in order to support the aspirations of individuals, of the pharmacy profession and of patient care. As a school we recognise this huge responsibility which is very appropriately shared in partnership with many others. I continue to be inspired by what modern practice looks like, or can look like.”