- Briefly introduce yourself (The person and your academic qualifications so far)
My name is Mohamed Fahmy, the Head of the Clinical Pharmacy Department at Children Specialized Hospital.
I possess the following qualifications:
- Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist 2023 (board of Pharmacy Specialities, America)
- Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy 2021.
- Certified Lean Six Sigma White Belt 2021.
- Bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy 2018.
I previously worked as:
- Clinical Pharmacist, Children Specialized Hospital.
- Clinical Pharmacist, Shefaa Orman Hospital for Oncology.
- Hospital Pharmacist, Shefaa Orman Hospital for Oncology in IV Mixing Unit, Dispensing, Operation Room Pharmacies.
- Where are you currently working, and what does your job entail?
I work at Children Specialized Hospital as the head of the Clinical Pharmacy Department. Besides working as a clinical pharmacist. I mainly work in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and sometimes in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
My job description is as follows;
- Managing clinical pharmacists.
- Planning the clinical pharmacy schedule according to the workload.
- Assigning tasks to the clinical pharmacy team employees based on their qualifications & available resources for better workflow.
- Working directly with medical professionals and patients.
- Overseeing and coordinating activities.
- Preceptoring new staff during orientation and beyond.
- Participating in multidisciplinary clinical rounds.
- Preventing, detecting and Resolving medication-related problems.
- Verifying patient medication orders for appropriateness and accuracy.
- Documenting critical interventions and providing drug information for patients and all healthcare teams.
- The Ministry of Health in Egypt passed a mandate that all hospitals in Egypt must roll out the services of a clinical pharmacist. What was the impact of this and what’s the general perception of other healthcare practitioners towards the role of a clinical pharmacist?
Clinical pharmacy practice in hospitals has played a vital role in minimising medication errors and resolving drug therapy problems through clinical pharmacy interventions made by clinical pharmacists. For example, in the last year (2023), in the hospital where I work, our clinical pharmacy department participated in 3988 interventions with an acceptance of approximately 80% by physicians. This resulted in minimising medication errors and resolving drug therapy problems.
Our clinical pharmacy department participated in the cost-saving process and saved 99957 LE (Egyptian pounds) from discontinued medications via clinical interventions: duplication, contraindications and improper drug selection. Our clinical pharmacy department also participated in making 12 local protocols. Physicians welcomed our clinical pharmacy services, and that’s obvious from intervention response percentages of 80% and according to key performance indicators such as medication inquiries.
- You are a board-certified pharmacotherapy specialist in your country. How did you obtain this accreditation, and what was your experience like?
My journey as a Board-Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist took almost a year, from the decision to study until passing the exam. It was an exciting experience that upgraded my knowledge, skills, and mentality and helped me become a more professional healthcare professional.
- How did you end up in oncology pharmacy as a career?
Being an investigator and watcher of medication therapy issues, medication errors, and how to manage them can all be clearly and productively observed in clinical oncology pharmacy, which is why I started with it as my speciality in clinical pharmacy.
- As a pharmacist, has your Lean Six Sigma certification been impactful or instrumental in your career?
Yes, it has.
Lean Six Sigma is a wonderful set of tools for improving the work process. As the Head of the Clinical Pharmacy Department, I also work as a clinical pharmacist, just like my colleagues, in addition to supervising and managing the clinical pharmacy department.
- Artificial intelligence (AI) and technologies like machine learning and blockchain are here. As someone who makes presentations, offers career guidance, and empowers pharmacists on such matters, how will technologies impact and disrupt the profession, and how can we embrace them?
The more skills you have, the more people will need you. AI went viral, and it’s vital nowadays. Every pharmacist can utilise AI in many pharmacy settings, such as academia, from preparing for exams to scientific papers to lecture preparation or for assignments.
In the community pharmacy, AI can be very useful in marketing, branding, content and target audience, human resources, inventory management, customer service chatbots, patient counselling, diet monitoring, and extemporaneous drug compounding.
Clinical pharmacists can use AI to calculate doses, adjust doses, manage drug interactions, interpret lab results, and prepare IVs. AI has so many other applications.
- Every expert was once a beginner, while every master was once a student. As an oncology pharmacist, what challenges did you initially face when you started working in this space, and how did you overcome them?
A significant challenge was my need for knowledge about oncology, including medications and diseases. I overcame this by regularly studying and discussing these topics with my seniors and mates. I handled the huge workload by organising the workflow and responsibilities with my colleagues.
- We live in a world where data is critical. One of the skills you have leveraged in your practice is data analysis and evidence-based medicine. Could you shed more light on your role in data analysis and what career options may be available for a pharmacist in the data analysis landscape?
In 2022, I transferred from oncology to a paediatrics speciality hospital. I faced the challenge of needing technological tools such as front office systems and computers. I, therefore, initiated a parallel Excel spreadsheet with my team to document everything we needed because if it was not documented, it never happened.
For this reason, we initiated the following sheets for data collection: medication errors and drug therapy problems sheet, protocol adherence sheet, yellow card sheet, and more.
We also needed to analyse all the collected data to show results and guide us to where we are now, what’s good, what obstacles exist, and how to deal with them and convert challenges into successes. By using Microsoft Excel, it all began.
I highly recommend pharmacists learn it and use it.
- I noted that you love the phrase ‘’The good pharmacist’’. Please shed more light on this concept and how you put it into practice.
Being a pharmacist is not easy, but the main challenge is to be a good pharmacist.
A good pharmacist is qualified and certified, has skills, and takes the initiative to help others, show them the shortcuts, and guide them through upgrading.
I aspire to be the good pharmacist I want to see in other pharmacists, and I practice this daily.
My take-home message to everyone is this: always remember to be the good pharmacist you wish to see.
- What advice would you give to a young pharmacist passionate about an area such as pharmacotherapeutics or evidence-based medicine who needs to know how or where to start?
A pharmacist is not a decision-maker but a recommender and patient educator. Their recommendations save patients’ lives.
I advise regularly upgrading yourself through continuous medical education, soft skills training, practising to gain experience, and helping other pharmacists maintain this mentality.
Pharmacists must always remember to be the good pharmacist you wish to see.
- What is the most complex and most memorable clinical case you have encountered in your practice as a paediatric oncology clinical pharmacist?
She was a five-year-old girl called Hanin. I can’t give details, but it was very unfortunate that she died. Her case was one of many, but these cases could be motivation for us to fight more vigorously against cancer and help patients by reducing their pain while reducing medication errors and drug therapy problems.
- Did you receive any mentorship in your career as a pharmacist? How can we, as a profession, improve mentoring? What advice can you give to pharmacists aspiring to be clinical pharmacists?
I was lucky to have mentorship from several of my seniors.
As a young pharmacist, you need to seek mentorship from experienced pharmacists because these guides could shape your career future.
If you are a junior pharmacist who wants to be a clinical pharmacist, you first need to be a good hospital pharmacist.
Make an effort to learn more about medications, their classes, uses, main side effects, what to monitor, doses, and adjustments. Then, you also need solid knowledge about the diseases themselves.