From their traditional role focusing on the dispensing of medications and medication counselling, pharmacists have advanced and evolved to embrace a wide range of patient-centred direct care clinical pharmacy services which include medication reconciliation, medication therapy management, anticoagulation therapy services, smoking cessation service and chronic disease management.

Chronic diseases are a leading cause of death worldwide and have a significant negative impact on public health, overall well-being, national economies and the long-term sustainability of burdened health systems.
With their extensive training in pharmacotherapy, pharmacists are well-placed and empowered to play an integral role in multidisciplinary and integrated team management of chronic disease in primary care, where pharmacotherapy is an important modality of therapy.

The introduction of the Collaborative Practitioner Prescribing Course by NUS to train and prepare pharmacists to prescribe under a Collaborative Practice Agreement with a medical practitioner further empowers pharmacists to play an integral role in chronic disease management.

With an ageing population and efforts to right-site more patients from tertiary to primary care, there is opportunity and impetus for pharmacists to apply their pharmacotherapeutic expertise to optimize care of chronic disease patients at primary care/in the community.

In this symposium, you will be able to learn about the role pharmacists can play in the management of patients with chronic diseases. There will also be presentations by 2 primary care pharmacy practitioners about the roles pharmacists play in the management of chronic disease patients in primary care.