Two pharmacists from St. John’s Episcopal Hospital in Far Rockaway recently presented the pharmacy department’s research findings at the three-day Dubai International Pharmaceuticals & Technology Conference & Exhibition (DUPHAT).
The presentations by Piao Zhuge, PharmD, BCPS, and Ruby Rajkumar, PharmD, BCGP focused on the St. John’s Pharmaceutical team’s findings on the Impact of a Pharmacist-Driven Antimicrobial Stewardship Program in a Community Teaching Hospital and the Remdesvir Impact on Readmission & Mortality in Acute Care.
“It was an honor for the pharmacy department to represent St. John’s at the DUPHAT International Pharmacy Conference and share the quality initiatives we have been doing here with the global pharmacy community,” Zhuge said. “The opportunity to present our research and exchange ideas with pharmacists all over the world was truly special.”
DUPHAT is known as the largest gathering of pharmaceutical professionals in the Middle East and Africa. This year’s conference boasted an attendance of over 20,000 and exhibited the top 100 global pharmaceutical brands. The exhibition is a place for industry insiders to network, attend specialized workshops, and to learn and share best practices with other professionals from around the world.
The St. John’s Pharmacy Department is a 24/7 department that provides medications and clinical services to all hospital patients. In addition to medication dispensing, medication education and intervening on medication-related issues, the pharmacy focuses on quality improvement initiatives such as antimicrobial stewardship, intravenous to oral medication conversions, anticoagulation monitoring and automatic substitution for medication administration to patients on enteral feeding tubes.
St. John’s Episcopal Hospital is the only hospital providing emergency and ambulatory care to the densely populated, culturally and economically diverse, and medically underserved populations of the Rockaways and Five Towns in southern Queens County and southwestern Nassau County. Celebrating over 110 years of community, the 257-bed facility provides people of all faiths with comprehensive preventative, diagnostic, treatment and rehabilitative services, regardless of ability to pay.
