I AM IFAPP: KYOKO IMAMURA
President Elect: Kyoko Imamura
- What was your motivation to join IFAPP?
I learned of IFAPP when I joined Japanese member association more than two decades ago, but little information was available in those days. I rarely received news from House of Delegate meeting / General Assembly and ICPM.
Since we started our regular educational seminars in Japan in 2005, I was invited to be the Japanese representative of CEPM (Council for Education of Pharmaceutical Medicine of IFAPP). Knowing what’s going on out of Japan in the area of pharmaceutical medicine has always been my priority because there’s little awareness of pharmaceutical medicine as a professional scientific discipline in Japan.
When Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) projects started in 2009, the majority of our European CEPM members moved to participate PharmaTrain project and their dedicated efforts are now succeeded in the non-profit organization ‘PharmaTrain Federation’. Having seen the successful development of global network of PharmaTrain centers, I led national effort to develop our course in pharmaceutical medicine in accordance to PharmaTrain quality standards. Our course was established jointly with the Osaka University, and it’s accredited by PharmaTrain Centre of Excellence in 2015 as the first recognition in Asia.
As regards ICPM, I had no idea until I participated the 14th ICPM held in Seoul, Korea in 2006, and was impressed to see the series of active presentations and discussions regarding issues in pharmaceutical medicine, followed by mutual interaction among IFAPP members at the receptions. Many Japanese colleagues enjoyed tours to visit leading Korean institutions equipped advanced information technology and I believe their experiences helped a lot to boost Japan’s national efforts to reorganize infrastructures in clinical research and accelerate regulatory performance. Face to face meetings and exchanges are always stimulating and far more effective than just e-mailing, and I believe this is the value of ICPM held in different countries as the joint effort of IFAPP and its national member associations.
- What are the activities you like most in IFAPP?
Since I became President-Elect in 2016’, I’ve been in contact with a variety of IFAPP activities and always informed of each working group. As I’m mostly involved and leading efforts in our national educational activities, I like IFAPP’s educational and certification activities. Last year, we had joint program among IFAPP, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine of UK, and PharmaTrain to revise educational syllabus. We invited volunteers worldwide to review and revise syllabus and many IFAPP members participated this great venture. It is the strength of IFAPP to call and enjoy active participation from our members, I think.
- What would you recommend to new members of IFAPP?
One cannot be alone in the world. Whenever you need help from your professional colleagues, you must have organizational contact point to express your concern and call organizational action to work with. Sometimes your issue can be nation-specific or culture-related, and you can just talk among your local community leaders for solution. As the world is getting smaller and regulations are aligned internationally, however, your problem can be the same with others. Why not join IFAPP and raise the issue to discuss and agree on strategic action plans? As you know, IFAPP today accepts individual membership so please ask IFAPP how to join in case if you don’t have national member association in your country.
Pharmaceutical Medicine is still poorly understood in many regions of the world and we need to work together to overcome this situation.
As the hosting national member association of ICPM2018 in Tokyo, we are happy to receive your registration to our symposium, panel discussions and a number of workshops. International chairpersons, panelists, and guest speakers are confirmed and waiting for your participation. Opening ceremony is held with Head of Japanese Medical Association (concurrent Head of World Medical Association) and one of our keynote lectures is to be provided by Dr. Otmar Kloiber, WMA general secretary. As IFAPP developed Memorandum of Understanding with WMA, more exchanges are expected in future to promote pharmaceutical medicine. Take a look at our ICPM2018 website. More information to follow;
https://www.icpm2018tokyo.com/
Please come and talk to IFAPP, and take your leadership to develop pharmaceutical medicine in your own country.