https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/48642 Wed, 08 Apr 2026 17:17:56 GMT 2026-04-08T17:17:56Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/139084 Title: Dissertation abstracts and project descriptions 2025 Abstract: Pharmaceutical Sciences face several challenges in ensuring good governance in accordance with Regulatory Sciences. Dealing with medicines requires addressing three basic pillars: Quality, Safety and Efficacy with reflections on accessibility and environmental issues. The pharmaceutical sciences demand aspects to ensure sustainability and resilience. One must keep in the centre of activities the patient, namely patient safety. Simultaneously, consideration of cost-efficiency and meeting patients and other stakeholder needs, is crucial. In the case of signals in detection and management, the pharmacist and pharmaceutical scientist focus on how aspects of signals may be elevated to that of a scientific interpretation- hence the evolved term of signalomics. Another aspect of increasing relevance is that of risk- the possibility of an event occurring and its impact and likelihood of occurring. The relevance of education in these modern aspects is that one, at least to date, does not aim to eliminate risk or adverse signals. Students and graduates of the Department of Pharmacy conceive the elements needed for managing and controlling risks and signals. Crises management is unfortunately too common an occurrence in the pharmaceutical field. The keyword in dealing with crisis management is avoidance. In the COVID pandemic, we were all preparing for the worst. Today we look at lessons learnt from the pandemic- lessons learnt how to improve services but also to reduce costs. The Department of Pharmacy should be proud that in addition to a great scientific, clinical and professional contribution, academics and students focus on these crucial intense areas of risks and signals. Some may wrongly think that such advancements are causing bureaucratic, time-consuming activities which could serve better in addressing other more traditional studies. Project management and financing are highly successful if one, in addition to knowledge, awareness and visibility, includes in the project plan an analytical mind concept of how signal detection and risks facing the project could be managed. In the same way that in pharmaceutical sciences we are conscious of the relevance of Standard Operating Procedures, guidelines, instructions, controls, deliberations to include risk management and integrate signal detection are modern tools which are components for success. Tools explained in our curriculum include the use of Risk Registers, co-ordination, objectives, prioritisation, methods to rapid response as well as strategy, record keeping and compliance. [excerpt]. Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/139084 2025-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/131544 Title: Dissertation abstracts and project descriptions 2024 Abstract: This year’s Pharmacy Symposium serves as a notable demonstration of the advancement in a fundamental component of tertiary education, specifically the research endeavours that underpin the academic and administrative principles of the Department of Pharmacy. A review of the topics covered in the presentations reveals the extensive breadth and depth of student involvement in productive investigations aligned with the progression of pharmaceutical practice. These topics encompass a spectrum ranging from the evaluation of service quality to the regulatory aspects of pharmacy prescribing and the extension of community pharmacy services. The explored concepts contribute to the nurturing of future pharmaceutical professionals. Pharmacy students are guided to expand their proficiency not only to navigate through an environment characterized by demanding service requisites but also to excel in delivering a patient-centric approach resilient to external disruptions. As demonstrated by their presentations, which delve into areas such as certification and competence frameworks, integrated care, digital technology, disease management, and patient education, students exhibit exemplary performance. The educational framework adopted by the Department of Pharmacy offers a platform for the cultivation of leadership within the healthcare domain, fostering the establishment of an optimal health management system. Another cornerstone of the department’s strategy involves providing students with opportunities to oversee their research projects, thereby fostering communication skills and fostering a mindset conducive to innovation. Such innovative initiatives are evident in the exposure to contemporary evolving concepts such as signal management, process optimization, sustainable practices, risk assessment, nanotechnology, and trend analysis. The paradigm shift towards increasingly smart and interconnected medical devices, coupled with the imperative to address the visibility of rare diseases within the healthcare landscape, underscores the importance of leveraging real-world data for the advancement of pharmaceuticals. Medication safety remains paramount across all pharmaceutical processes, as reflected in numerous student projects focusing on this foundational aspect of pharmaceutical science. Education emerges as a cornerstone of patient safety, as evidenced by research projects exploring educational interventions aimed at informing the general public about health medication risks, pharmacists’ interventions regarding high risk medications, patients’ involvement in pharmaceutical care plans, and pharmacist-led educational initiatives addressing inflammatory bowel disease. [excerpt] Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/131544 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/119137 Title: Dissertation abstracts and project descriptions 2023 Abstract: The growth of the research input in the Department of Pharmacy has grown from strength to strength. The progress that has taken place involved enlargement in both the breadth and depth of knowledge. The dissertation abstracts and project descriptions illustrate some of the areas of investigation undertaken in the past year by our students. In recent years it seemed clear that a new impetus was needed if necessary progress was to be made in getting pharmacy and the pharmaceutical scenarios to be patient-centred. Academic research and popular interest in health have grown dramatically and pharmacy played a powerful role in the considerable progress made in conceptualising and delineating health as an integrated area for study. The Pharmacy Department at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Malta took a practical intervention in the last ten years by establishing the Doctorate in Pharmacy Level 8 degree in collaboration with the University of Illinois Chicago College of Pharmacy. A cursory look at the past symposium abstracts, which expose the students’ work, incidentally this year celebrating half a century of projects, shows that pharmacy studies have moved forward from the concept of sole study of ‘illness’ to that of ‘health’ and led forward the discourse on health and pharmacy from a fabrication stage to practice. [excerpt] Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/119137 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/91284 Title: Dissertation abstracts and project descriptions 2022 Abstract: This year’s Symposium is taking place in the shadows of a pandemic that posed a number of challenges and yet lessons we learnt that taught us the constant relevance of the fundamentals of the pharmaceutical sciences. We also witnessed a paradigm shift in solutions to meet people’s healthcare needs. While the practical aspects of vaccine development placed Vaccinology as the focus of pharmaceutical activity making us again realise that vaccines are perhaps the greatest advancement of modern medicine, the social aspects related to anti-vaxxers, the reflections on the rights for choice, pharmacovigilance and safety all came to the fore. The basic biology of pDNA and mRNA vaccines and the latest advancements in the evolvement of the CRISPR science led us to revisit the educational curricula. Professional leadership in times of change and when the cheating of time has become a necessity presented to be real day-to-day attributes. [excerpt] Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMT https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/91284 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z