The environment has changed and community pharmacy has with it the opportunity for a bright and bold new future of its’ own design.
ePharmaC is an online social community enabling communication and collaboration between community pharmacies.
There are various types of membership to ePharmaC, depending on your role within the healthcare industry.
The ePharmaC network provides the opportunity for an effective communication channel within the pharmacy community.
Welcome to ePharmaC, part of a new way forward for community pharmacy
To achieve our vision of a transformed community pharmacy sector, action must be taken now to seize the opportunities available. It is the difference between surviving under protection of legislation and flourishing under a market oriented model that drives improved patient outcomes, increased profits and better economic sustainability. In order to achieve this vision certain behaviours and practices require review, rejuventation and in some cases complete overhaul. The environment has changed and community pharmacy has with it the opportunity for a bright and bold new future of its’ own design. What is ePharmaC? ePharmaC is an online social community enabling communication and collaboration between community pharmacies. It provides an effective tool to network all pharmacists in the country. The network enables its members to contribute to the growth of pharmacy, and more specifically independent community pharmacy, in South Africa. As a communication tool, the network will facilitate loyalty through affiliation, help to influence practices and ensure standardised efforts to achieve common goals. It is a cost effective method of accessing the views of every pharmacist in the country through discussion forums on any issue affecting pharmacy. It is planned that the network will be owned by community pharmacist members members on a share basis. Currently the existence of the ePharmaC community is made possible through sponsorship by UTi Pharma. The ultimate vision is to make the social network self sufficient through income generation such as advertising revenue. Who runs ePharmaC? ePharmaC is currently managed by a small group of independent community pharmacists, with support from UTi Pharma South Africa. This group has been responsible for developing the structure and content of the social community. The make up of this group arose from the membership of the strategic consultative forum organised by UTi Pharma. Why does UTi Pharma support this initiative? The past decade has seen a revolution in pharmaceutical care in South Africa, sometimes it was a stealth revolution and other times it happened amid great cannon fire. The introduction of the SEP concept and move away from a focus on the price of the product as the means for a pharmacy to obtain income to a fee for service structure are the most obvious changes. And hand in hand with this has been a growing groundswell to move into the exciting realm of patient healthcare outcomes. UTi Pharma believes that a vibrant, strong and growing community pharmacy network is not only beneficial to the health of South African society – it is essential. UTi Pharma supports ePharmaC as a tool to achieve this goal, and help bring community pharmacy into a brave new future. Who should be interested in joining? There are various types of membership to ePharmaC, depending on your role within the healthcare industry. Membership would be relevant for any person or organisation who supports and believes in the goal of developing a strong, vibrant and relevant community pharmacy service in South Africa. The community is primarily aimed at community pharmacy, however, there is value to be gained for other participants such as pharmaceutical manufacturers. What are the benefits to be obtained? The ePharmaC network provides the opportunity for an effective communication channel within the pharmacy community. Through this channel stakeholders discuss ideas on shaping the future of pharmacy, and keep abreast of trends and significant events. The network assists to identify collaboration partners for the transformation of pharmacy as envisaged, outline specific short term strategies to transform the way community pharmacy currently practices and standardize protocols that are easily replicated by each member pharmacy. Interested in joining the ePharmaC community? In order to become a network member one must be invited to join by an existing member. If you do not know any existing members click here to complete a form requesting registration. All membership applications will be subject to a vetting process. |