Pharmacy academics have come together to boost complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) education in undergraduate and postgraduate university pharmacy programs.
Representatives from 13 pharmacy schools in Australia and New Zealand have formed the Australasian University Pharmacy Complementary Medicines Education Group at the annual conference of the Australasian Pharmaceutical Science Association (APSA) in Hobart last week.
Chaired by Griffith University's Dr Evelin Tiralongo, the group will meet biannually and develop best educational and practice standards in relation to CAM.
The development follows a call last month by Monash University pharmacy academic Dr Lesley Braun, echoed by the National Prescribing Service, for pharmacists to receive better training at university about CAM and their interactions with conventional drugs.
"We all agree that complementary medicine teaching should be a core component in pharmacy curricula and integrated throughout our programs," Dr Tiralongo said.
"While each pharmacy school currently teaches some complementary medicine content, the content varies."
The new group will also liaise with professional bodies in order to align competency and registration requirements in relation to CAM.
"We feel that we really need to start identifying possible educational gaps and additional teaching needs, and share our experiences in order to better prepare our future graduates for their professional role which includes counselling on complementary medicines," Dr Tiralongo said.
"I am happy about the interest and support shown at this first meeting at APSA and given additional pharmacy schools have also shown interest to join, I think it will be a very inclusive, vibrant and successful undertaking."