Noriko Fukushima

Present Status of Displaying Pharmaceutical Products for Sale on Flea Market Applications for Smartphones and the Responses to Illicit Selling by Service Providers

 In Japan, a pharmacy or drug store license is required for selling pharmaceutical products. However, civilians without a pharmacy or drug store license are displaying pharmaceutical products for sale on a flea market application, which is illegal dealing. This study discussed the modality for implementing countermeasures for the illicit selling of pharmaceutical products. We extracted pharmaceutical products displayed for sale on three flea market applications (Mercari, Rakuma, Fril) on one day. One hundred and eighty-one pharmaceutical products were displayed (49 on Mercari, 86 on Rakuma, and 46 on Fril). There were 6.1% (11/181) domestically prescribed drugs, 69.1% (125/181) domestic OTC drugs, 23.8% (43/181) foreign-made prescribed drugs, and 1.1% (2/181) foreign-made OTC drugs. The seller could display the product for sale without confirming whether it is prohibited. We alerted the service providers of this illicit selling at flea markets at three different instances. The pharmaceutical product displays were deleted by the service providers at a rate of 55.1% (27/49) for Mercari and 51.2% (44/86) for Rakuma. The average number of drugs that were displayed for sale by each seller was 1.4 and the average number of total products that were displayed for sale by each seller was 100. The seller could have unintentionally displayed the pharmaceutical products for sale, without the knowledge that it is illegal. The service providers of flea market applications should create mechanisms to alert the sellers that displaying pharmaceutical products for sale is an illicit act and regulate these violations.

Interprofessional education at the Keio University Faculty of Pharmacy

As part of a trial course on interprofessional education (IPE) at Keio University our Faculty of Pharmacy initiated a joint seminar with the university’s medical and nursing departments in 2008. We had two joint seminars: one in June and another in October. In the seminars, students and participants actively discussed several issues with regard to the national and private health care systems and medical malpractice. They also listened to feedback lectures held by experts from the medical and social system. At Kyoritsu University of Pharmacy, we had already held similar joint seminars three times since 2006. The participants were not only from our school but from various universities around Japan, given that our school was then only a small college for pharmaceutical students. Our considerable experience in the field of small group learning (SGL) helped make these seminars a success. By making full use of the SGL method we have successfully lead the discussion sessions at the IPE seminars attended by students from various medical fields. After the merging of our small pharmaceutical college with Keio University, we continued holding joint seminars for the three medical faculties at Keio University. It has not been without tribulations, however. The newly created interprofessional seminars faced several problems. The seeming lack of interest shown by the medical school decreased the level of participation of medical students, while too many facilitators are required for such seminars. To resolve these issues, we have made some changes to future activities in this area. To start with, we plan to change the course from an elective to a required subject for the students of the three medical faculties in Keio University.