Students of the Faculty of Pharmacy (FF) of Universitas Indonesia (UI) managed to achieve success at the Asia Pacific Pharmaceutical Symposium (APPS) 2024 event held by the International Pharmaceutical Students’ Federation (IPSF) Asia Pacific Regional Office (APRO) in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on June 30 to July 7. Laurentius Rex and Abendanon Dooradi won the 1st Runner Up on the Clinical Skills Event (CSE) competition category. Laurentius Rex, who is in his fourth semester, stated that the competition was quite difficult due to the number of materials they have not yet understood and their opponents were mostly final semester students.
“We must spare more effort to understand pathophysiology to the mechanisms of the drugs used. We also strategized in making summaries and discussing materials together. In the final round, we always choose high-point questions because we are sure of our abilities in answering questions,” said Abendanon.
CSE tests the medical knowledge and skills important to disease assessment and patient care, which plays a crucial role in pharmacy practices in the field of pharmaceutical services. These skills allow the participants to assess symptoms effectively and choose optimal treatment strategies.
Still in the same event, other FF students, Hosea Imanuel, Fika Aditya Syabani, An Nisaa Renanda Prananto, and Nafisa Thahira achieved success in the Industrial Skills Event (ISE) competition category. They successfully got the 2nd Runner-Up after defeating ten other teams in the elimination round and fiercely competed with three other teams in the final round.
Hosea Imanuelsa, one of the team members, stated that the FFUI team preparation was done intensively. “We did literature studies covering various aspects, such as drug efficacy and safety, as well as disease prevalence. We also focus on the relevance and real impact of the solutions we offer, not just innovation,” said Hosea.
ISE is a structured competition designed to encourage participants, especially pharmacy students, to improve their industrial skills by focusing on production and marketing. This competition provided an opportunity for students to display their potential and develop their creative problem-solving skills by solving specific challenges.
In addition, two other awards were also attained by other FFUI students, namely the 2nd Best Member Organization Award for the Student FFUI Student Executive Board and the Member Recognition Award for Kiranadinda Sakinah, who received the best performance rating among approximately 150,000 other IPSF APRO members.
The Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy UI, Prof. Dr. apt. Arry Yanuar, M.Si. also expressed his pride and hopes that, in the future, this great achievement can be maintained and even improved. “I feel proud of the spirit of the FFUI students to continue aiming for national and international achievements. I hope that this spirit never recedes to bring the great name of UI and show the world that UI students have a great competitive spirit and want to continue to develop themselves,” said Prof. Arry.
APPS 2024 is an inspiring annual event to promote the role of pharmacy professionals and become a place for international cultural exchange, strengthening amity among pharmacy students from worldwide. This event was attended by more than 250 students from multiple Asian-Pacific countries, including Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan, and other countries.
