Minister for Health opens state-of-the-art pharmacy facility at Trinity

Dublin, June 14th , 2010 –  A state-of-the-art teaching facility which will provide training to the highest standard for Ireland’s pharmacists of the future was officially opened by the Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney on June 14th at the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Trinity College Dublin.  It is a collaborative initiative between Trinity and the company Boots, with the support of Helix Health.

The new facility includes a range of modern facilities aimed to equip pharmacy students with the necessary skills to meet the challenges and opportunities of the future. Stand-alone teaching stations will help students become familiar with the more traditional tasks of dispensing and administration, while separate areas have been designed to provide training in advanced pharmacy services.

Leading Irish healthcare technology company, Helix Health, has provided the complete dispensing IT requirements for the laboratory including 40 independent pharmacy systems with specialist infrastructure and a pharmacy robot. This will enable students to learn about dispensing, drug interactions and pharmacy management practices using the best available technology. Helix Health will continue to update and maintain the systems for the next three years ensuring that the systems in use by the student population reflect accurately the market changes including the latest drug updates and information on drug interactions.

“Helix Health believes strongly in the importance of investment in education and ensuring that students have access to the very best of pharmacy technology. These, and future students will be learning in the most representative setting to that of an operating pharmacy, and that will be an invaluable experience,” said Chief Executive of Helix Health, Howard Beggs.

The Unit also features a model pharmacy which reflects a modern Boots pharmacy equipped with Helix Health software allowing students to experience at first hand a real life pharmacy situation and a realistic setting for the teaching of pharmacists-patient communications. This area will be observed both directly and through video technology from an adjacent communication skills training suite.  The Unit will also incorporate technology and facilities to support both interactive training on-site and the further development of e-learning opportunities.

Above: Mary-Rose Burke, Chief Pharmacist with Boots, Mary Harney, Minister for Health and Children and Howard Beggs, CEO, Helix Health.

Professor Marek Radomski, Head of the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences explained: “The facility is intended to be the most advanced in Ireland and allow Trinity to provide the highest standard of professional and research training to pharmacists of the future. Over the past years our School has greatly benefited from a strong partnership with Boots and we are very pleased to now also have Helix Health as one of our strategic partners. The project highlights the importance of university-industry relationships for the benefit of third level education and research in Ireland.”

Commenting on its significance, the Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney said: “The professional education and training of pharmacists and the conduct of pharmacy practice research will be of world class standard in this modern facility at Trinity College.  Through the use of state-of-the-art educational and pharmacy technology, pharmacists will be trained in new and innovative ways, ensuring that patients in our healthcare system benefit from the highest standards of pharmacy care and practice.”

For more information please contact Miriam Ryan, Insight Consultants tel: 01 293 99 77/086 353 1679

Notes to Editor
About the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
The School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Trinity College Dublin was established in 1977 and is the oldest academic pharmaceutical institution in Ireland. Over the past 33 years the School has graduated more than 1,591 pharmacists including community pharmacists, clinical pharmacists and pharmaceutical industry leaders. Currently, there are 274 students in the School studying towards a B.Sc. (Pharmacy) degree. The School runs a number of successful postgraduate programmes including M.Sc./Diploma in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Technology, M.Sc./Diploma in Pharmaceutical Analysis, M.Sc in Hospital Pharmacy, M.Sc./Diploma in Community Pharmacy and M.Sc./Diploma in Pharmaceutical Technology.

As the School’s ethos is to teach through research, its academic staff has active research programmes supported by grants from Science Foundation Ireland, the Health Research Board, Enterprise Ireland and European Framework Projects. More than 50 PhD students are involved in research on pharmaceutical drug development in areas such as nanomedicine, drug delivery and targeting, drug discovery/design, drug action, pharmaceutical cell biology and practice of pharmacy. The School works closely with the pharmaceutical industry and has collaborations with most of the large multi-national pharmaceutical companies based in Ireland as well as with smaller indigenous companies such as Merrion Pharmaceuticals, Sigmoid Pharma and its own spin-off companies Pharmatrin and Solvotrin Therapeutics.
 

Last changed: 15th June, 2010 at 3:03 PM

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