Pharmacist Speaks About Insulin Treatment for Diabetic Patients

21 July 2016 – With the collaborative efforts of IMU School of Pharmacy, IMU Alumni and the Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society –Young Pharmacist Chapter (MPS-YPS), a talk titled ‘How Do Our Patients Cope with Insulin Treatment’ was held at the IMU Bukit Jalil Campus. The talk was attended by approximately 60 pharmacists and pharmacy students. We were honoured to have Dr Jim Chai as the speaker of the talk. He is a registered pharmacist with the Pharmacy Board in Malaysia, Pharmacy Council in New Zealand and also the General Pharmaceutical Council of Great Britain. His PhD research was on ‘Patients’ Lived-experience of Using Insulin Treatment for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Management’. Dr Jim started his talk highlighting the alarming prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) and obesity in Malaysia. He pointed out that 33.4% of Malaysians are overweight compared to 39.0% in the world, while 30.6% were obese when compared to 13.0% in the world. Besides that, he also pointed out that the number of people with diabetes are increasing, with many of them refusing to use insulin treatment. The talk continued with his findings on Malaysian patients’ attitudes and perceptions regarding insulin treatment. He shared that his research focused on discovering the reasons for patients refusing to use insulin, the perceived barriers, and social acceptance and facilitators that motivates the usage of insulin. He also emphasised on the importance of patient-centered treatment and not merely just treating the disease. In addition, the speaker explained the methods and techniques used in his research for information gathering as well as analysis. He introduced and discussed the general concepts of conducting a qualitative study and highlighted the differences in comparison to a quantitative study. Most of the audience found the talk to be informative. One of the audience felt that she had learnt a lot from listening to Dr Jim who shared his real life experience and gained insights into the actual practice in the pharmacy. A pharmacy student also commented he agreed with Dr Jim’s patient-centered approach, where it is necessary to understand the patients and their health beliefs in order to provide quality patient care.