IMU School of Pharmacy Lecturer Won Second Prize for Oral Presentation at International Conference

19 – 21 February 2020 – Dr Palanisamy Sivanandy from Pharmacy Practice Department, School of Pharmacy, International Medical University won Second Prize for his Oral Presentation at the UMMC International Nursing and Healthcare Conference 2020 held at The Everly Putrajaya. The title of his presentation was “Retail Pharmacist’s Knowledge, Attitude and Perception Towards Patient Safety – A Nationwide Study in Malaysia” The presentation is based on a project headed by Dr Palanisamy Sivanandy and his team members: Dr Marikannan Maharajan, Tan Tyng Wei, Tan Wee Loon, Lim Chong Yee, Aruna Ranjan, Dayalini Rajasekar, Kalaivani Mathialagan, Saranya Kumaran, Ho Xin, Ling Chi Wei, Ainaa Diyana Shapheri, and Lim Ching Rou.

About the Research Project
As we know, patient safety is a global concern and medication related errors can have serious consequences. Medication related errors are the third leading cause of death worldwide. It inadvertently causes health issues and economic burden to the patients. In Malaysia, patient safety issues are mostly focused in hospital setup, however the retail or community pharmacies are almost neglected in this aspect due to lack of availability and accessibility of resources. Dr Palani and his team started this patient safety project in 2015 to assess the “retail pharmacist’ knowledge, attitude and perception toward patient safety” in 3 states namely Selangor, Johor and Melaka. By 2019 the team had completed their evaluation in 11 out of 14 states of Malaysia. Summarising the findings of the study Dr Palani, “we discovered that there is a lot of room for us to improve the patient safety in retail/community pharmacy. More importantly we know where the gaps are and can come up with solutions to improve patient safety!”.

About the Research Project

As we know, patient safety is a global concern and medication related errors can have serious consequences. Medication related errors are the third leading cause of death worldwide. It inadvertently causes health issues and economic burden to the patients. In Malaysia, patient safety issues are mostly focused in hospital setup, however the retail or community pharmacies are almost neglected in this aspect due to lack of availability and accessibility of resources. Dr Palani and his team started this patient safety project in 2015 to assess the “retail pharmacist’ knowledge, attitude and perception toward patient safety” in 3 states namely Selangor, Johor and Melaka. By 2019 the team had completed their evaluation in 11 out of 14 states of Malaysia. Summarising the findings of the study Dr Palani, “we discovered that there is a lot of room for us to improve the patient safety in retail/community pharmacy. More importantly we know where the gaps are and can come up with solutions to improve patient safety!”.

Dr Palani’s research interests are in patient safety, medication errors, pharmacovigilance, falls risk medications, geriatric pharmacology, clinical research, cancer chemotherapy, metabolic disorders and so on. Dr Palani has been recently recognised by Bentham Science Publisher as “Bentham Ambassador” for his noteworthy contribution in the field of research especially in the field of pharmacy practice. He has received many awards from various bodies for his research and innovations in teaching.