10th GPPEd Programme Organised by NUSPS IRC a Success!
On 25th to 29th June 2025, NUS Pharmaceutical Society (NUSPS) International Relations Committee (IRC) successfully hosted the International Pharmaceutical Students Federation’s Asia Pacific Regional Office (IPSF APRO)’s annual flagship event – The Good Pharmacy Practice Education (GPPEd) Programme! GPPEd is an annual event that is organised and hosted by different member organisations in the IPSF APRO each year. This year, Singapore is very honoured to be chosen as the host country for the 10th GPPEd.
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of GPPEd, the theme for this year’s GPPEd is “Celebrating Diversity and Excellence”. This theme captures the essence of pharmacy practice in Singapore where we embrace the different cultural backgrounds of our patients as well as our constant strive for excellence. The theme also encapsulates the similarities and differences in the pharmacy practice in the Asia Pacific region. While we all have our differences in how we provide care for our patients, we all have one singular goal in mind: To keep our patients safe and healthy.
During the five days four nights event, 60 pharmacy students hailing from 7 different countries took part in a variety of activities to learn more about Singapore, our pharmacy practice as well as each other’s cultures and practices. The activities included Welcome Night, Academic Workshops, Site Visits, Global Health Forum, a Competition, Cultural Night as well as Social Night.
The Welcome Night kickstarted the event with a bang! Participants were all split into their respective groups where they met pharmacy students from different countries. The IRC team then facilitated with breaking the ice between participants with a series of ice breakers which also served to test the participants’ pharmacy knowledge. With a night full of laughter and enjoyment, the participants were able to feel more at ease with each other, building the foundation for the group activities that would be held on the following days.
The participants took part in 2 workshops hosted by our own pharmacy faculty Dr Ong Pei Shi and Dr Linda Hong. Dr Ong hosted a workshop on pharmacist-led Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) management in Singapore where she introduced the specific inhaler devices available for COPD management in Singapore. Dr Hong hosted a product creation and marketing workshop where participants created and pitched their products to the crowd. Through these workshops, participants were better able to find out what health issues are of the most concern in Singapore and in the Asia Pacific region as well as possible treatments that are available for them.
On the second and third day, the participants went on two rounds of site visits to a total of five different healthcare establishments: Singapore General Hospital, Woodlands Health, Institute of Mental Health, National Skin Center and Khatib Polyclinic. Participants were able to observe pharmacy operations in different healthcare settings and for different patient demographics in Singapore.
Global Health Forum with Mr How Ti Hwei, Mr Kevin Ben Lawrence and Mr Ostwin Paw
Back in campus, we were extremely honoured to have invited 3 esteemed speakers to join us for our Global Health Forum! Mr How Ti Hwei (Vice President, International Oncology, AstraZeneca), Mr Kevin Ben Lawrence (Founder & CEO, SingMed Clinic) as well as Mr Ostwin Paw (CEO, Alpro Foundation) joined our host – Mr Ivan Gan (NUSPS IRC Director) in a conversation about how the healthcare scene is like in Asia Pacific currently as well as how they grew into the roles they hold today. It was an enriching and fulfilling afternoon where we all learned from their experiences in the field!
To get everyone’s hearts pumping, NUSPS IRC planned a clinical skills-based competition that meshed together the childhood catching game Virus and Werewolf. All 60 participants were on a mission to find out the identity of the main spreader while working through missions and staying uninfected by answering clinical skills questions correctly.
During the cultural night, participants from each of the 7 countries presented on unique traits of their culture and home country. Everyone had fun learning more about unique quirks such as superstitions and fun facts about each other’s home countries!
To end off the whole event, a social night was held at the Shaw Foundation Alumni House on the last night. It celebrates the end of the event as well as the friendships that had been made along the way. Featuring the commemorative Milo Plushies as prizes, participants actively engaged in an exciting game of Human Bingo. The top 5 winners of the game received the adorable Milo Plushies! The fun continued in station games featuring Singapore traditional childhood games such as Pick-up sticks, Capteh and Kuti Kuti. It was very heartening for us organisers to see such enthusiastic participation from the participants.
Overall, the event was a major success! The participants of GPPEd were extremely pleased with the hospitality received as well as the line-up of events over the days. Once again, we really appreciate the enthusiasm and proactiveness of all participants. Thank you very much for making GPPEd a success!
Article by Tan Rui Qi (Year 2 Pharmacy student, NUSPS International Relations Committee Vice Director Internal)
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