Venue: School of Pharmacy & Technology Management,, MPTP, Shirpur Campus, NMIMS
Date: 30th August to 1st September 2018
The School of Pharmacy and Technology Management, SVKM’s NMIMS-Shirpur Campus Successfully conducted the PCI sponsored three day continuing education program (CEP) for pharmacy teachers of Maharashtra state on "Emerging trends in Pharma Sciences” during 30th August and 1st September 2018. The chief guest of the program was renowned scientist and academician Dr. Bhushan Patwardhan-Professor and Director, Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences, Savitribai Phule Pune University and a well renowned scientist. Dr. R.S. Gaud delivered the welcome speech. Dr. Ashwini Deshpande-Associate Dean-SPTM, presented preamble of the CEP and introduced the participants to the three major themes of this CEP:
Theme:
"Emerging Trends in Pharma Sciences”
- Teaching to reach masses
- Nanomedicine – A tool for effective therapy
- Wearable Technology
In an enchanting inaugural address Dr. Patwardhan overwhelmed the audience with an account of various inadequacies in pharmaceutical and biomedical research and shared his views on the quality of publications and their impact on the society. Through statistical demonstration he projected the radical rise in availability of biochemical information over the past few decades and how this data can be utilized for the progress of healthcare profession. He insisted upon development of reading habit in order to keep oneself updated and upgraded and its impact on the quality of education and research. Dr. Patwardhan congratulated PCI & PCI authorities for organizing CEPs all over India. Dr. Shirish Deshpande delivered the vote of thanks.
The first day witnessed though provocative talks by Dr. Swarnalata Saraf- Professor, Dean, Faculty of Technology Ex- Director, University institute of Pharmacy, Pt. Ravishankar Shukla University, Raipur, Dr. Varsha Pradhan- Pharma Consultant and Visiting Professor, DPSRU New Delhi, and Dr. Manjusha Joshi- Assistant Professor, Mukesh Patel School of Technology Management & Engineering, Mumbai. One of the core developers of the concept of CEP, Dr. Saraf shared her views on the requirement of constant evolution of the academic curricula and teaching techniques in the constantly transforming society and the role of CEPs towards this end. One of the focuses of the talk from Dr. Pradhan was "will teaching profession be obsolete?” and how the technological advances will not be able to outperform a good teacher at least in the near future. Dr. Joshi shared how a teacher can be involved in continuous learning to form multidisciplinary collaborations through her experience in developing wearable devices for effective measurement of blood glucose through Raman spectroscopy.
The brilliant expert talks of the second day were delivered by Mr. Rajiv Shah-Director, NMIMS Global Access School for Continuing Education, Mumbai, Dr. Namdeo R. Jadhav- Professor, Bharati Vidyapeeth College of Pharmacy, Kolhapur, Dr. Krutika K. Sawant- Professor, MSU , Department of Pharmacy, Baroda and Dr. Santosh Bothe- Professor & Head of IEDC Cell, MPSTME, NMIMS, Shirpur. The forte of Mr. Shah’s lecture was the role of technology in making education accessible, easier and cost effective, and beyond the boundaries of time and places. Dr. Jadhav communicated an excellent message: "how a teacher can help to make a society self-dependent!” by sharing how they extracted "best out of waste” in sericulture. The practical approaches of nanotechnology as well as how to train the students for nanotechnology were the take home messages for participants from Dr. Sawant’s lecture. Dr. Bothe emphasized on the much required paradigm shift from "How to monitor” to "What to monitor” in disease and the role of pharmacy teachers in equipping the students with the requisite skills to acknowledge the newer developments at the interface of healthcare and information technology.
The Third day had two phenomenal lectures from Dr. G. D. Gupta-Director-cum-Principal, ISF College of Pharmacy, Moga, and Mr. Yugal Sikri- Chairman-Pharmaceutical Management-SBM. Dr. Gupta addressed the challenges faced by the teachers with the increased technological power in the hands of the students and how to guide students towards focusing on the virtuous effects of technology and refrain from its distractions. Mr. Sikri provided some alarming data with respect to the reach of basic healthcare facilities in India e.g. despite of having 18% of the world’s population, our country is presently spending only 1% of the world healthcare investment; and the need of healthcare education for improving the overall health of the society.
The Chief Guest of the valedictory function was Dr. Jayant Gandhi-honorary Joint Secretary-SVKM and Mentor-NMIMS. Mr. Harit Chitalia, hon. Jt. Treasurer, SVKM was the special guest for the session. Dr. Ashwini Deshpande Presented the sum-up of the three days event. Dr. Jayant Gandhi congratulated the team of SPTM for the successful completion of the event and inspired the participants to apply the knowledge acquired in their professional career. Participants shared their views about theme and organization of CEP. Dr. Sanjay Sharma delivered the vote of thanks with special mention to PCI for this good initiattive.
