Journal of Medicines Optimisation - Mar 2022

Journal of Medicines Optimisation • Volume 8 • Issue 1 • March 2022 32 Viatris is known for the quality of our medical education and workforce development that we provide and hopefully we have been recognised as one of the leading providers of quality pharmacy training. I think we can do things around affordable medicines and medicines optimisation. We can work with people around integrated pathway development and making them more effective. There are many things we can do. We can do things at the patient level, but where the difference and the opportunity really comes is with joined up system thinking and this is where we are focusing this year to really try and make these systems work. I am optimistic with what is being proposed, because I think it will be a place based solution and by empowering people and giving them financial control will enable the development and delivery of those resources and services. Do the Celtic nations also feature in Viatris thinking for supporting pharmacy development? Absolutely, yes and with our footprint, we have people and resources all around the UK including the devolved nations. We acknowledge and recognise the differences in the NHS operating system and the potential needs, but recognise that some elements of skills and capability development should be common and transferable. We understand and appreciate that they are leading the way in many areas in terms of joined up system thinking. Have you any examples of initiatives already undertaken with NHS partners for improving patient care? For us it would be guideline development, advisory boards, webinars and masterclasses. We have had shared experiences using specific case studies, we have also gone into pathway redesign for treatments. We are involved in KOL education and medicines optimisation toolkits and we also have corporate partnerships with organisations such as the United Kingdom Clinical Pharmacy Association and PM. If you had to nominate the top 3 priorities within Viatris for engagement with pharmacy, what would they be? The first one is to engage as a healthcare company which is a very different mindset for us. This means providing not just a product or a medicine solution, but a total solution. This requires us to listen and understand what pharmacies needs are and then co- create a solution together in order to produce a positive outcome. Secondly, it would be to champion the pivotal role that pharmacy can play in an integrated healthcare system in terms of health population improvement and the quality of care. Finally, it would be to support pharmacists on their learning and development journey - helping them to manage the change but also personally grow their skills, grow their development, grow themselves as a professional to meet the challenges of this upcoming change that we are all going to work on together. To summarise, it is to engage, listen, understand and then more importantly act together in a new way championing the role of the pharmacy sector and then continue to support the journey of pharmacists on their learning development. How can pharmacists or NHS organisations contact Viatris to discuss any points of common interest or development needs that they have? We have many points of contact. We can be contacted via our Customer Service department, we also have our Key Account Managers that go out into pharmacy every day. You can also contact us through our website or contact Andrew Mooney, Head of External Affairs, by emailing [email protected] .