12th Asia Pacific Pharmaceutical Symposium in Japan

The Asia Pacific Pharmaceutical Symposium 2013 was held in Japan (22nd-28th August 2013). There were a total of 14 participants from Taylor’s University SOP. Around 400 pharmaceutical students from Asia Pacific Region gathered in Tokyo for this special event. This symposium is really a great platform for pharmaceutical students from different countries to interact, exchange opinions and information.
 Day 0
 Most of the participants arrived at Japan on 22^nd Aug. A welcome party was held at night. There were performances from the organising committee. All of the participants were divided into different groups from A-T. Many activities in this APPS were carried out in groups so the ice breaking games in welcome party helped to enhance relationships among group members.

Traditional Japanese performances from the committee



Speech given by Marika Yamada, Chairperson of APPS 2013 and Daisuke Kobayashi, President of Asia Pharmaceutical Students’-Japan

Searching for group members in silence in order to start the ice breaking section





Day 1

Most of the activities throughout the APPS were organised at Toho University, Japan. The Opening Ceremony and Symposium I were held in the morning. There were 10 workshops in this day but every participant can only attend two workshops that they chose before attending APPS.

Workshop 1: Counterfeit Medicines, Cosmetics, Community Pharmacy, Pre Patient Counseling Event, Poster Section I

Workshop 2: Information & Technology Management, Pre Clinical Skills Event, Contact Person Workshop, Student Exchange Workshop, Poster Section II

The event for the first night is International Night. This night was held in Camelot Club at Shibuya. Participants were encouraged to wear their traditional costumes. Participants from each country provided one performance in order to showcase their countries.

Flag Ceremony for all of the participating countries

Group photo after the opening ceremony

Symposium I: ‘The role and importance of self-medication in the 21^st century’ presented by Mr. Akira Uehara, President and CEO of Taisho Pharmaceutical Holdings 

Pre PCE Workshop

Counterfeit Medicines Workshop

Group discussions during Cosmetics Workshop

Poster Section (The poster shown is poster from Malaysia that got the first place.)

Performance from Indonesia

Performance from Korea

Performance by Taylor’s SOP, Malaysia

Performance from Thailand

All of the Taylorians wore traditional costumes to attend International Night



Day 2

Every participants can attend two workshops same as the previous day.

Workshop 3: Health Economics, Drug Poisoning, The role of pharmacist in diabetes management, Patient Counseling Event(CSE), Invitation to Drug Discovery

Workshop 4: Self-management & Pharmacy, Complementary Medicines, At-home Medical Care, CSE, Pharmacy Profession Awareness Campaign

After the workshops, there was a campaign that held to promote public awareness regarding self-medication. We had a parade and shouted catchphrases towards public on the road.

Slogans:

1.       ‘Shirou Kusuriwo!’ – ‘Improve your knowledge about medicine!’

2.       ‘Mamorou Kenkou!’ – ‘Stay in healthy.’

3.       ‘Tayorou Yakuzaisi!’ – ‘If you have some question about medicine, you ask pharmacists!’

After the parade, there was a photo contest among groups. Different themes were assigned to different groups. Night for the day is Japanese night. A traditional Japanese summer festival was held specially for APPS 2013. Many Japanese food was prepared and there were traditional Japanese performances too. Finalists of Miss Contest also performed during Japanese night to gain supports from voters.

Diabetes Workshop

Invitation to Drug Discovery workshop

Self-Medication workshop

During the parade with the help of police

 Taylorians' group photo after the parade

Group photo after the parade

Winner for photo contest: Group N

Games, Food & Drinks

Performances

Taylorians taking photo together with uncles at the roadside after the Japanese Night

Day 3

We had our last two workshops on day 3.

Workshop 5: Allied Healthcare, Generic Medicines, Global Health I, OTC Medications, Different role of green tea in Japanese healthcare (A)

Workshop 6: Benefits of everyday food for optimal health, Role of traditional Chinese medicine in Japan, Global Health II, Medication usage in disaster settings and emergencies, Green tea (B)

After the workshop, we had Symposium II that was divided into two parts. Symposium II-A with the topic ‘Scientist as a pharmacist, Pharmacist as a scientist’ presented by Professor Tohru Mizushima while Symposium II-B with the title ‘A world’s first: research in neuropathic pain and neuralgia’ was presented by Mr. Makoto Tsuda.

We had free night on day 3 so every participant was free to explore different destinations that they were interested in Tokyo.

Green Tea Workshop

Optimal Food Workshop

Thailand's presentation for APPS 2015

‘Scientist as a pharmacist, Pharmacist as a scientist’ presented by Professor Tohru Mizushima

‘A world’s first: research in neuropathic pain and neuralgia’ presented by Mr. Makoto Tsuda

Day 4

Day 4 is the day that let all of the participants take a deeper look into Japan and at the same time had fun together. We went for field trip and explored Japan together with group members. There were 3 destinations for field trip but each participants could only attend one.

 Field Trip 1: FANCL Cosmetics Factory + Tokyo University of Science

Field Trip 2: Life Safety Learning Center

Field Trip 3: Kusuri Medicine Museum

Explore Japan:

Tokyo Station

Tokyo Tower

 Auction Night + Miss Contest Final

All of the finalists for Miss Contest

Finalist from Taylor's SOP, Teeq Lui Shi

Winner for Miss Contest, Yvonne Anggasta from Indonesia

 

Enjoying delicious food before Miss Contest and auction

 Day 5

Patient Counseling Event Final was held today. All of the finalists had to be on the stage one by one to be evaluated.

Lionel as patient and the first place of PCE as pharmacist

Symposium III about 'Drugs for neglected diseases' was presented by Ms. Fumiko Hirabayashi, DNDi's Representative Japan.

After the symposium was the closing ceremony.

Prize giving ceremony

The last event for APPS 2013 is the gala night. This is the key social event for APPS.

All of the 14 Taylorians duing gala night

The gala night marked the end of APPS 2013.

Day 6 

The last souvenirs that we received from APPS Japan: a badge and a pendrive with photos of APPS.

All of the participants gained a lot from this meaningful event. We got to knew and learned about many new information and knowledge through workshops, symposiums and discussions. It is also the beginning of great new friendships for participants from different countries.

P.S.: For those who are interested, please be prepared for the coming APPS.



Closing the Gap to NoGAPS

25th Sept, Sunday, sunny and light drizzle.

20 pharmacy students bravely crossed over the state border between Taylor's University and USM Penang for the National Gathering of Pharmacy Students (NoGAPS).

In order to promote inter-university relationship, we were assigned into different group with interesting name, such as: "Nice Neisseria, Sophisticated Salmonella, Mysterious Mycobacterius and ... ..."

Soon, it was ICE BREAKING session!

A little bit of ice to melt in the beginning, it burned into bursts of passion in no time.

Inspiring cheer dances from different group were presented one after another, followed by Group Flag and Kolam Making. All were impactful enough for us to not to forget our first day in USM Penang.

Shiny Staphylococcus Flag!

War of Dance

Kolam Making (I never thought I can make such an artistic product! LOL)

Kolam and Flag

Then,  the Opening Ceremony of NoGAPS 2013 was held with the present of honoured guests.

Followed by cultural dance and a FUNNY yet HORROR performance by USM.

White Glove Performance

Grace Indian Cultural Dance

The Dementor?

26 Sept, Monday, Sunny and Intermittent Cloud

All of it started with workshop, workshop and workshop. Yeap, knowledge is power!

We learned about Patient Counselling and Education, Industry Pharmacy and MyPSA-IPSF.

*IPSF - International Pharmacy Students Federation

*MyPSA - Malaysia Pharmacy Students Association

Something more interesting, optional activities such as, halal seminar, pharmacy research excursion, dosage competition, and antibiotic frenzy (it was really an exciting game that would give you adrenaline rush!) were also held.    

Antibiotic Frenzy

The good thing was everyone had fun!

As the horn was blown, the PHARMTASTIC RACE began!

Bugs in action! Find your group ranking in the box full of bugs!

Try to become a white clown with the flour?

A ferocious BATTLE OF UNI between Taylor's, USM, IIUM and UKM was launched.

TuPSS brought us The 3G Adventure of Albuquerque.

                                   Script-master: Pravianan Lai (Center Front), Voice-master: Shaun Wee (Center Back),
                                     Crewman: Seat Theng (First Left), Wen Yia (Second Left), Shu Ren (Second Right), 
                                                                          and Old Man: Chee Kok (First Right)

........................................................................

                              After dicovering the 3G Chestbox, Albuquerque, (Wen Hang) continue sailing on the ship), 
                                                Crewman (Shiao Tung) stayed at the Golden Island to grow lemon, 
                               Double-headed monster (She Yee and Jessica) opened a pharmacy underneath the dark sea.

27 Sept, Tuesday, Sunny and Intermittent Cloud

Helping is the spring of happiness.
We participated Community Outreach Project at a flat community in Jelutong, Penang.
It was another worthwhile experience to promote health awareness among the local community.

Health screening, health education for kids, gotong-royong, poster exhibition and medicine compound demonstration were held.

Jalur gemilang... di bawah naunganmu

Jalur gemilang... kami semua bersatu

Perpaduan ketaatan

Amalan murni rakyat Malaysia

Jalur gemilang... megah kami terasa

Jalur gemilang... kibarkanlah wawasan

Merah putih biru kuning

Jalur semangat kami semua

Berkibarlah... Berkibarlah... berkibarlah... Jalur Gemilang

Health Screening (Blood Glucose Test)

Are you ready? IMPROMPTU shall begin!

Every group was given a specific task to be practised in limited time and presented in front of the audience.

Different categories of task such as Pharmchef (Cooking),  Primadona Reborn (Acting), Pharmdance (Dancing) and Future Pharmacist Top Designer (Designing) were assigned randomly based on group ranking.

Pharmdance - Deva with long nails

Pharmchef - Indian Style Curry Chicken

Pharmchef - Ondeh-ondeh

Primadona Reborn - Save me, save me!

Final Round of Pharmdance by Mysterious Mycobacterious - led by She Yee

28 Sept, Wednesday, Intermittent Cloud and Light Drizzle

Expanding horizons at the perspective of Pharmaceutical research.

Field trip to IPharm, which is a research faculty related with USM occupied with arts of the state facilities and research expertise.

Target, Hit, Lead

VOTE ME and I shall SERVE you.

MyPSA Annual General Meeting was held and in conjuction, a new team of EXCO was elected at the present of official delegates from each university and members.

Proudly announce that 3 Taylor's students participated the election:

Neo She Yee was nominated to elect for Entrepreneurship Officer.

Emileen Chieng was nominated to elect for Student Exchange Officer and succeeded.

Ng Han Yui was nominated to elect for Publication Officer and succeeded.

MyPSA EXCO 2013/14
Ng Han Yui (Last Row, First Right)
Emileen CHieng (FIrst Row, First Right)

GALA NIGHT - "BLITZ AND GLITZ" 

Beautifully dressed, handsomely styled, ladies and gentlemen gathered at Georgetown City Hotel for their last night of NoGAPS 2013. 

It was calling for us, until 9pm.

They call this, "Perfectly Blurred"

The Gala Night went to the climax with the prizing ceremony.

Pharmdance Champion: Nice Neisseria (Member: Jessica)

Future Pharmacist Top Designer: Shiny Staphylococcus (Leader: Pravinan)

Primadona Reborn: Sophisticated Salmonella (Member: Samuel Chew)

Antibiotic Frenzy: 

Champion: Wong Min Ru & Team

1st Runner-up: Wen Hang, Seat Theng & Team

Pharmtastic Race:

1st: Enthusiastic E.coli (Member: Tan Hui Qi)

2nd: Lovely Lactobacillus (Member: Pavitra, Chuah Ying Qi)

3rd: Shiny Staphylococcus (Leader: Pravinan Lai)

Best Group:

2nd Runner-up: Mysterious Mycobacterius led by She Yee (Member: Han Yui)

Mysterious Mycobacterius

Best Group: Shiny Staphylococcus led by Pravinan Lai

Shiny Staphylococcus

Best IPTA Society Award: USM

Best IPTS Society Award: AIMST

29 Sept, Thursday, Intermittent Cloud and Light Drizzle

It was 2am... Surprise!

Opps, they found thier long lost sister!

Goodbye!

To conclude, it was indeed a memorable experience that brought students from different universities to gather together and manifest an unforgettable memory. We are grateful to know the friends from different places who made us heartfelt warm in this trip.  

We truly appreciate the effort of SOP who sponsored the fees of the programme and the drivers who fetch us safely to and fro to USM Penang.