Nur Alyani Binti Mohamad Asri A181991

UNIVERSITI KEBANGSAAN MALAYSIA

AHLI FARMASI SEBAGAI PROFESYEN
(NFNF1352)

TITLE : ESSAYS

GROUP : A181991
NAME : NUR ALYANI BINTI MOHAMAD ASRI

LECTURER’S : DR. TUAN MAZLELAA TUAN MAHMOOD
NAME

SEMESTER I, SESSION 2020-2021
FACULTY OF PHARMACY

According to Klaus Schwab, 4th Industrial Revolution is the generation where technology
comes in any forms and it is considered as common. Technology classified as major in which
any fields would eventually come across with technologies. If pharmacy is still stay in
traditional way, then the 4th Industrial Revolution will be less promise and more of a threat.
About 32,500 pharmacies in India have been changed to E-pharmacy and aiming for promoting
public health by legal framework of their country. It has been a successful towards the goals of
their country. An E-pharmacy is a pharmacy that works through the internet by selling
registered drugs, medicines and delivery to the customers or well known as patients. Internet
making all the procedure easy and convenient for the patients to get their medications. Using
the internet, patients could get their medications by refer to the prescription that has been given
by registered medical practitioner. As much, technology could do benefits to the pharmacists
such as assist them to increase the quality of work performance, widen the range of outcomes
by the profession or combination of both. However, technology is not on the bright side.
According to Norgaard et. al (2001), a technology is not just a cultural product, but in itself a
producer of culture. It could be either pros or cons.

Technology was expected to disrupt society and the economics of pharmacy by the
experienced pharmacist. Although technology is a major factor on development of the country,
it could cause harm towards the pharmacy industry as well patients’ conditions. However,
Hepler (1988) argued with the bad impacts as it technology be the main factors on shaping
pharmacy’s future. Most pharmacies are equipped with computers, robotics dispensing, AI and
Big Data, which could identify the patients’ conditions and track medicines usage from the
previous experiences and search for the problems in term of pharmaceutical. Indeed, with
modern technologies, the result also could be faster and accurate. Despite all the improvements
and developments, there are limitations to the pharmacies in 4th Industrial Revolution plans.

First, the main developers of the devices tend to be not from pharmacists or even not someone
from pharmacy’s fields. This is worrying because of the limitations of the knowledges towards
pharmacists. Thus, it could badly affect the industry when there is misinformation between
outsiders. Other than that, when the dispensers are moving towards fully online, there is almost
no function of local pharmacies as people are buying medicines through online using the
prescribe from any healthcare places. Despite the convenient, the improvement of health
condition should be monitor, this is when pharmacist put in their work. The medicine should
be suitable for patients and need to go through pharmacist’s recommendation, even though
there is prescription of the medicine. Future development in internet-based technologies could
eliminate the healthcare professional’s works from the process of care delivery. As for now,
we could see that the plans from 4th Industrial Revolution have the possibility of disrupting the
healthcare sector and give big impact to the pharmacies. Since the developers are not from
pharmacy or any healthcare industry, the possibility of getting unsuitable medicines is high.
There will be some pharmacies that sell illegal drugs or contaminated ingredients that lead to
dangerous drug interactions. This could happen since the internet is still wide and free for
whoever want to make anything out of it, which in this context, some unqualified people could
make their own online pharmacies without anyone knowing.

Second, the privacy of the users is inadequately protected. Since the 4th Industrial Revolution
is moving towards technology, thus all the information is listed in the Big Data makes it visible
to people. Big data is the collection of large data with various of information it carries to be
owned and analysed. For the online pharmacies, online financial transactions are important and
should be secured. However, the confidentiality is unsure and unsafe. Through the internet,
there are many possibilities might occur such as hacking, spams, phishing, and identity theft
that considered as most dangerous, the data of the patients’ medicines or condition could be

leaked. When this happens, the patients need to be more cautions by do some checking and
read reviews from the other patients before buying the medicines. The time spending for going
pharmacies might be saved but the time spending for the confirmation still be wasted. People
will be anxious on buying online medicines even though the prescription from medical
practitioners have been achieved. In some cases, the money and time will go to drain. This will
make other issues occur. To choose convenient, the patients must risk everything, but if some
efforts can be made by the authorities like going through the online pharmacies or set
enforcements, this issue might not be happening. Therefore, some considerations need to be
made for the safe of patients and pharmacists.

Third, there will be lack of communications between patients and pharmacists. Using the
online pharmacies, patients will be less contact with their pharmacists. This is concern because
the patients would not get to know the details of their medications though the pharmacists such
as side effects and the suitability of the dosage. Basically, patient-centred care communication
strengthens the experience of pharmacist in consulting and professionalism towards the
patients. When there is not face-to face communication between pharmacist and patient, the
response received is slow and longer time needed and could lead to serious health problems for
the patients. Especially the elders, children and pregnant mothers, they are the high risk as they
need more care and information for their medications. With the high population in this country,
the amount of people that pharmacists need to communicate is huge and some of them still lack
skill in digital. More time needed for them to being familiar with the system, it will cost time
and pharmacists. A new subject needs to be added in the pharmacy’s school as in IT. Some of
the patients are depends on the prescription from their medical practitioners to get their
medicines. However, if there is no communication with the pharmacist, the patient would not
know either the prescription is still valid to use. This is concerning as there will be much
consequence in the patients.

4th Industrial Revolution could bring advantages to the pharmacists. Using the 4th Industrial
Revolution, certain treatments could improve their efficiency. The World Economic Forum
(WEF) Global Future Council on the Future of Health and Healthcare in its Health and
Healthcare in the Fourth Industrial Revolution stated 4IR will show the improvement of patient
condition as the technological advancement increase the efficiency of the treatment. There are
few advances that has been made, in pharmacogenomics, the tailor-made medicines have
existed for the patients to use and benefits from it. The report also stated that technologies such
as nanotechnology and the Internet of Medical Things (loMT) will benefit the healthcare sector.
For instance, telemedicine, virtual home assistants for the aged and frail, medical adherence
tracking are some applications from loMT that has been dominated in the healthcare. Therefore,
pharmacists are expected to adapt quickly with the changes to bring the advantages to its
maximum. Thus, instead of viewing on the cons of 4th Industrial Revolution, pharmacist should
embrace the plans for the future.

Nørgaard LS, Sørensen EW, Morgall JM. Social constructivist analysis of a patient
medication record experiment – why a good idea and good intentions are not enough.
International Journal of Pharmacy Practice 2001; 8(4): 237-46.

Schwab, K. (2017). The Fourth Industrial Revolution. Switzerland: World Economic Forum.

Hepler, C. D. (1988). Unresolved issues in the future of pharmacy. American Journal of Health-
System Pharmacy, 45(5), 1071-1081

Chordiya S.V, Garge B. M. Epharmacy vs conventional pharmacy. Int J Comprehensive Adv
Pharmacol 2018;3(4):121-123.

Embracing the 4th Industrial Revolution – Pharmaciae – SAPC. (n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2021,
from https://online.pharmaciae.org.za/4th-industrial-revolution/

Ilardo, M. L., & Speciale, A. (2020). The Community Pharmacist: Perceived Barriers and Patient-
Centered Care Communication. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public
Health, 17(2). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17020536

Vaccines work as saving people from getting the disease by preparing the body’s neutral
defences. However, if the body encounter with same virus, the body is prepared to destroy the
viruses and prevent from the illness. Widespread of the infection forced the authorities to invent
or make a vaccine to control the transmission of COVID-19. In amidst of pandemic, vaccines
are being made by the authorities with numerous of studies being carried out. According to
WHO, more than 60 vaccines are in process to be tested in clinical development and 170 pre-
clinical development. Vaccines will be priority to those who are in high-risk in getting
infections such as healthcare workers and their relatives. With the new development of
vaccines, people are still being anxious and uncertain regarding the vaccines. Some media are
exaggerating about the side effects which then makes the public more concern and unsure.
Details on the vaccines are still in discussion which makes public still lingering with a lot of
unanswered questions. Regardless that, vaccines need to be tested and people must be brave to
participate in the testing. To discover the attitude of public towards the vaccine, there are survey
by authorities that being distributed across the social media for the public to fill in and analysis
from it.

On November 18, 2020, the preliminary confirms efficiency of Pfizer/BioNTech has 95%,
which considered as high and safer vaccine to combat COVID-19. On November 16,2020
Moderna has announced the efficiency with 95%. With the high level of efficiency of both
vaccines, the request from various countries will be rising until billion to accommodate
numbers of populations as well as lower the transmission of COVID-19. Collaboration among
the government, companies, healthcare workers and the public have been made to receive the
vaccines. With the possibility of getting vaccine is near, there are three domains that need to
fulfil the requirement to make it considered as successful. First, vaccine supplies such as cold
storage, the distribution of vaccines, syringes, and needles. Second, people to implement
vaccines, such as healthcare professionals and vaccinator. Last, the people to be vaccinated. If
the requirement is not being fulfil, there might be a failure in vaccination.

Regardless all the preparation of getting vaccines, there are still uncertainty that makes people
feel unsure to get one. Mostly, the concerns are towards the side effects of the vaccines either
it could lead to injury, illness, or death. The fear of getting vaccination may not only affect the
clinical outcomes but social consequences. This situation may get worse when they go social
isolation to avoid stigmatisation from the public. The issue is getting serious as it is associated
with not only physical but mental. Zandifar and Badrfam (2020) suggested that false
information, stigmatisation etc can further to stress and mental morbidity. As the vaccines are
being developed too quickly, there are some reaction that may occur as throughout the
observation. Some allergic reaction is reported for some people after the vaccinations. Among
the people that received vaccines, Centre of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has
reported that Americans has more cases of severe allergic reactions. However, there will be
more uncertainty with the vaccines. People will be more cautious before receiving the vaccines.
Limited in number of people that will test the vaccine is a barrier. In addition, the uncertainty
of vaccines cannot be tested with people who has or have severe disease, makes the number
decreasing.

Other than that, people are interact randomly and differently based on the country, races etc.
Some people interact in highly structured networks regarding on their work and social
interaction. Different lifestyle might give different impact on the vaccines which need to have
more research on this matter. This pattern needs to be considered with vaccines that received
and yet to be unknown of the consequences. Unknown effect could be opposite with the
theories which makes it more concern toward the public.

The spreading of misinformation of COVID-19 vaccine is increasing in the social media

such as Facebook, Instagram etc. Facebook has been received huge burden by the spreading of
misinformation by the public especially anti-vaccines. The company said about 12 million of
posts have been taken down between March and October 2020 and working with 167 million
of contents for factchecking. The researchers for misinformation in social media stated that
more than half a million users are still openly the false information. As the increasing is quite
overwhelmed, the action taken is insufficient and too late before more of it has happen on the
platforms. For examples of the action of the post is they encourage people to not take the
vaccines because like deaths or argue with the doctors’ explanation about the medical benefits
of vaccines. Because of the curiosity, people are posted their questions on the social media.
Unfortunately, irresponsible people or known as anti-vaccine take the opportunities to spread

the false information about getting vaccinated. While public are looking for an honest answer
from authorities, anti- vaccine begins their movement through social media. Even though,
Facebook has launched their aggressive policies, the false information are still easily found.
Other than anti-vaccine, those who claiming themselves as healthcare professionals such as
medical practitioners and pharmacists are easily convinced the public with their title. That is
irresponsible of them use the title and manipulated the public. With those issues are arising,
the public is at the end road with no confirmation of the fact. This concerning as the
transmission can easily infected with the spread of misinformation. In Malaysia, some of the
misinformation include the food that good to prevent one from getting COVID-19. The
examples are ridiculous, irrelevant and no evidence based. While in Phoenix in the USA, a

resident consume chloroquine upon hearing could cure COVID-19 and died. Chloroquine
works commonly at aquariums to clean fish tanks. As the public are getting anxious of getting
infected, they are willing to follow without checking the authority of the sources. As the
transmission of COVID-19 is faster, however the spread of false information is way faster
through various social media.

References
Barua, Z., Barua, S., Aktar, S., Kabir, N., & Li, M. (2020). Effects of misinformation on COVID-19

individual responses and recommendations for resilience of disastrous consequences of
misinformation. Progress in Disaster Science, 100119.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pdisas.2020.100119
Beckett, L. (2021, January 6). Misinformation “superspreaders”: Covid vaccine falsehoods still
thriving on Facebook and Instagram. Retrieved from the Guardian website:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/06/facebook-instagram-urged-fight-deluge-
anti-covid-vaccine-falsehoods
Mendes, P. (n.d.). How many people need to get a COVID-19 vaccine in order to stop the
coronavirus? Retrieved from The Conversation website: https://theconversation.com/how-
many-people-need-to-get-a-covid-19-vaccine-in-order-to-stop-the-coronavirus-152071
Mills, M. C., & Salisbury, D. (2020). The challenges of distributing COVID-19 vaccinations.
EClinicalMedicine, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2020.100674
Nania, R. (2021, February 11). What You Should Know About A COVID-19 Vaccine. Retrieved
from AARP website: https://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/info-
2020/coronavirus-vaccine-research.html
Paul, E., Steptoe, A., & Fancourt, D. (2020). Attitudes towards vaccines and intention to vaccinate
against COVID-19: Implications for public health communications. The Lancet Regional
Health - Europe, 100012. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2020.100012
Qiao, S., Tam, C. C., & Li, X. (2020). Risk exposures, risk perceptions, negative attitudes toward
general vaccination, and COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among college students in South
Carolina. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.26.20239483
The race for a COVID-19 vaccine. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.who.int website:
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/covid-19-vaccines

Patient care at hospitals or health clinics requires an articulated action from numerous
professionals’ workers, which include medical practitioner, nurse, and pharmacists. During
discussion, pharmacist is included to come with the best solution regarding medication to the
patients. Pharmacist is known as drug expert with crucial responsibility toward the patient’s
condition. However, this profession is yet to be known widely and need appropriate
acknowledgement from the public to get rid of the invisibility and misconception. Usually,
public knows pharmacist as behind-the-scenes, count pills and seller. Those perception need a
changing that have been long overdue and be in the right track. The invisibility makes it harder
for the pharmacist to voice out their thoughts or give advices to the public, when they have the
right to do so as what they have taught in the college. To end the misconception and makes the
public acknowledge the profession, there are several ways to do. By making the things right, it
is easier for the pharmacist to work and ace their profession.

First, pharmacist need to conquer the social media by influencing the public in the platforms.
Social media also has its way to get known by public as the user is rising significantly in huge
number, with at least 3.5 billion of online according to World Data. With that saying, it can
enable pharmacists to promote their profession locally and globally as well their medicines or
drugs in the pharmacies. Social media is a free application that makes easier for people to
promote their own brand or product widely around the world. This same goes to the
pharmacists. Despite that, the right platform needs to be chosen for the outcomes to be nicely
presented. For instance, promoting on Twitter or Instagram, which consist of younger and older
generation. Pharmacists can interact with the public while using the social media. People tend
to have a lot of questions regarding the medication and profession and need an answer in a
blink of an eyes, which make the social media a right platform to use. Somehow, social media
is hard for some pharmacist especially for rural area but give appropriate training will ease the
process learning. As our world is heading towards 4th Industrial Revolution, internet is a major
platform that being used in every industry. Thus, learning is an early preparation and will widen
the knowledge. Ideas on contents are crucial to attract public gain knowledge about the
profession. The contents should be an appropriate and creative which makes people interested
as well follow the current trends. For instance, bring out the solution by pharmacist on most
common diseases. As problem as been existed, the solution should be found.

Other than that, usually public will raise awareness on Youtube, where companies or
individual could share their own informative videos to the public. Successful youtube need to
be handle professionally and nicely presented. Youtube has a unlimited duration and free which
makes it easer to the pharmacists to promote and give informative videos. By making videos,
people get to use their time wisely, which makes it positive effect and they will get engaged.
Numerous pharmacists have been creating contents in the youtube to let people know deeply
about their health. For instance, in Malaysia, there is a youtuber who has a bachelor’s in
pharmacy, known as Siti Awe. She made numerous numbers of videos regarding issues and
related with the profession. Malaysians are still clueless about the role of pharmacist until Siti
Awe makes a difference in the society. Most the comments are praising her and glad that she
found the solution to their problem and curiosity. Little things can make difference. Educating
people about our profession surely has their own way. We could change the misconception of
our profession by the public with creative contents on the social media platforms.

Secondly, create events and programmes related with the profession. The public usually
curious about the role of pharmacist in different sector, either in industry, government or
private. When medical practitioners are being busy with their task, public do not know that
they could ask pharmacists for information regarding their health too. This case has happened
to an oncology pharmacist. A patient wants to know the current condition but the doctor usually

busy and late to their consultation, but an oncology pharmacist came and give explanation on
her health regarding medication. She stated that she has no idea on the existence of pharmacist
and the role of pharmacist in the hospital until that day. This shown that most of the people are
still clueless about the pharmacist’s role in hospital or any health clinic and their validity of
their advices. Pharmacists have been working for numerous public health work force like
government and private hospital, education centre and community pharmacies but still lack in
acknowledgement makes their action seem invalid towards the public. Numerous events and
programmes need to be done from the authorities to make the pharmacist profession visible to
the public. It is because pharmacist could ease patient’s condition just like other healthcare
workers and they have the right to do so. The registered pharmacist has been fulfilling the
requirement by the government, which take several years. In the events that being hold, role of
pharmacist and their own abilities should be emphasized. Usually, events and programmes
about pharmacist profession being held when students are choosing their major, despite that it
could be an opportunity to show the public about the profession. It could be starting from the
students because younger generation tends to have opinions to be voiced out and get known by
the public locally and globally. In the content of learning process, they will discover the job
opportunities and syllabus of being a pharmacist. There will be an eye-opening for the students
and makes difference on their perspective. Changing their point of view is crucial because they
are the pioneer to the future generation.

Rather than just programmes on the public, pharmacist could help the public by having
community service. During the community service, pharmacist could check the condition of
the patient. This could be done to the elders and in rural area as they need more services to
check on their health, which also can raise awareness on the profession. Action speaks louder
than words is a thing that we should applied to get known. Instead of telling, it is easier for us
to show action on them so that they will know pharmacists’ capabilities. This is why in the
most of universities, they tend to do community services in addition to increase the
professionalism of the students.

It is also important for pharmacist to get known as patients could refer their medication to
the right pharmacist instead of going to nurses or medical practitioners. The role also crucial
to the patients as they are a part of patient safety, making sure the right medication is prescribed
based on the patient. The Hon’ble Courts have underlined the importance of pharmacist which
is ‘a little mistake in compounding, dispensing, preparing or mixing drugs may prove to be
very fatal and cause irreparable loss to a person who is already in difficulty’. With that saying,
it is obviously the role of pharmacist needs to be known widely. Therefore, pharmacists should
work together to establish and give the rightful position in the society.

References
Dewulf, N. L. S., dos Santos, V., Leira Pereira, L. R., & Troncon, L. E. A. (2009). The Invisible

Pharmacist. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 73(4). Retrieved from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2720371/
Me, P. is R. for. (2017, November 14). Debunking the Biggest Misconceptions Around Pharmacy.
Retrieved February 14, 2021, from Pharmacy for me website:
https://pharmacyforme.org/2017/11/14/debunking-biggest-misconceptions-around-pharmacy/
Sinha, H. (2014). Role of pharmacists in retailing of drugs. Journal of Advanced Pharmaceutical
Technology & Research, 5(3), 107. https://doi.org/10.4103/2231-4040.137383
years, T. P. J. M. 2018By S. H. S. H. A. H. has been a journalist for more than 25, Times, has written
for T. F., Times, T. S., Guardian, T., Pharmaceutical, M. M. C. the, marketing, … Shine’, the
author of the 2008 book ’Boost Y. C. C.-5. D. T. to make your child. (2018, May 21). Six tips
on how to use social media to promote your pharmacy. Retrieved February 14, 2021, from
Pharmaceutical Journal website: https://www.pharmaceutical-journal.com/careers-and-
jobs/careers-and-jobs/career-feature/six-tips-on-how-to-use-social-media-to-promote-your-
pharmacy/20204799.article?firstPass=false
The rise of social media. (n.d.). Retrieved February 14, 2021, from Our World in Data website:
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media#:~:text=These%20numbers%20are%20huge%20%E2%80%93%20there