QU-CPH hosts successful virtual outreach campaign

Participants of the webinar; Awareness messages

Qatar University (QU)'s College of Pharmacy (CPH) hosted the first virtual outreach campaign to raise awareness of proper disposal of unused medications at home The campaign, titled 'Dispose Your Unused Home Medications Correctly: Safe Use, Safe Disposal, included a webinar, daily social media messages on how to dispose of medicines correctly and a promotional video highlighting the harms and risks of unsafe disposal of medicines and how to dispose of unused medicines safely over a one-week period. The guest speaker of the event was Dr Mutaseim Makki, scientific researcher at the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia. Panelists of the webinar included QU Health director of academic quality assurance Dr Derek Stewart, QU-CPH professor Dr Hesham Korashy and QU-CPH assistant professor Dr Zachariah Nazar. The webinar aimed to educate the public on the health, economic and environmental impact of improperly disposing unused medication at home and ways to minimise medication. The webinar was followed by a discussion that covered many aspects, including the proper ways of disposing of different medication dosage forms at home, role of healthcare providers in minimising the risk of improper medication disposal, local and international rules and regulations regarding proper medications disposal, and the roles governments, health, and academic institutions could play in ensuring sustainable wider public awareness related to medication wastage and unused medications