PHAR-QA

The PHAR-QA (Quality Assurance in European Pharmacy Education and Training) is funded by the EU ERASMUS Lifelong Learning Programme. The PHAR – QA project will focus on competences and quality assurance in the education and training of European pharmacists extending the study initiated by PHARMINE (Pharmacy Education in Europe ).

The adoption of a European QA system in pharmacy education is necessary to face up to the specific challenge of ensuring that the formation produces a qualified professional who is capable of working efficiently in a profession within a regulatory framework independently of the institution in which you study. In addition, competences should be redefined according with the current trends such as:

• University re-organisation and movement towards the European Higher Education Area with emphasis on the Bologna principles and – amongst others – considerations of the bachelor/master organisation of courses;
• The economics and organisation of healthcare systems with community and hospital pharmacists playing an increasingly important role in European healthcare systems that are becoming more and more streamlined;
• Advances in the pharmaceutical – biotechnology industry with a move from small molecule medicines to therapy of biomedical origin produced by SMEs.

The bottom line to all of the above is patient safety. This is the primordial preoccupation of the pharmacist be it in everyday practice in community or hospital pharmacies, or in an industrial setting ensuring the research, development and production of efficient and safe medicines. The ultimate stakeholder of the PHAR-QA project is, therefore, the European population.

PHAR-QA is run jointly by a consortium of universities at the forefront of educational research and development in pharmacy. Leaded by the Pharmacy Faculty of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the Pharmacolor Consultants, Nancy in France and the participation of:

• University of Granada, Spain
• National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
• University of Tartu, Estonia
• University of Helsinki, Finland
• University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
• Jagiellonian University of Cracow, Poland
• Medical and Pharmaceutical University Carol Davila of Bucharest, Romania

PHAR-QA will also work in close collaboration with the European Association of Faculties of Pharmacy and other European organisations, as well as with MEDINE (Medical Education in Europe). It has an international advisory board with experts in QA in pharmacy education from the USA, UK, Spain and elsewhere, as well as a representative from TUNING.

The project outcomes will be used by 200 HEIs in Europe; education and healthcare sectors of national governments; EU DGs and the professional organizations of pharmacists.
PHAR-QA outcomes will also be disseminated to:

• Students and staff in the faculties;
• EU pharmacists (community, hospital,
• industrial and others);
• National and European healthcare specialist groups;
• Members of the European pharmaceutical, biotechnological, chemical, agricultural (especially pharmaceutical food science) industries.

Information will also be provided to non-European countries wishing to follow the work of the consortium and possibly to implement the PHARMINE and PHAR-QA paradigms.