On 16-19 June 2011, the 5^th Conference of Asian Association of School of Pharmacy was held for the first time in Indonesia. This time, ITB School of Pharmacy became a host to represent all Indonesian Schools of Pharmacy that now achieves 66 schools. This prestigious event was attended by participants from various countries in Asia such as Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Pakistan and Malaysia. Not to forget, participants from Indonesia who were from universities in Medan to Makassar.

The event that’s participated by more than 200 participants was opened by Endang Rahayu Sedianingsih as the Indonesian Minister of Health. In her speech, she expressed her dream to incorporate herbal medicine to the formal health services in hospitals and health centers in Indonesia. “Since last year, the Ministry of Health has started the herbal service in some areas of Central Java. We have trained about 30 doctors to provide herbal services,” explained Endang. This Minister of Health recommends the community and medical service in utilizing herbal medicine and herbs in preventing some diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, and others. According to Endang, herbal medicine is actually capable of preventing the disease to become more acute. “Herbal medicine doesn’t directly cure the patients as the modern medicine does,” she said.

According to Endang, pharmaceutical service is one of the pillars of the health service, in addition to the pillars of medical and nursing. Ideally, pharmacists should accompany patients along with doctor in term of visitation and prescribing the best medicine for the patient. Endang message for Indonesia pharmacists is “Pharmacists should not only wait for a doctor prescription, but also visit to the patients to cross check whether the medicine is appropriate or not.” The benefits are to increase the use of generic medicines, and also to avoid the sale of drugs directly from the doctor (dispensing) which had been a classical/chronic violation. Currently, the standard of hospital services around the world directs the pharmacist to be patient-oriented. She also hopes that the result of this AASP conference could be used as recommendation to the development of health not only in Asia but also all over the world.

The 5^th biennial conference of the Asian Association of School of Pharmacy (AASP) was delivered by several notable speakers, namely Ir. Ferry A. Soetikno, MBA. (Managing Director of PT. Dexa Medica) and Lucinda L. Maine, Ph.D., R. Ph. (Executive Vice President American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy USA). In her presentation, Lucinda highlighted that School of Pharmacy lecturers should always design the curriculum and learning strategies that actively involves the students. During the lecture, the lecturers have to challenge them to apply the information obtained in lectures towards the pharmaceutical services on patient cases with an increased complexity. Besides, there are several other invited speakers including Ms. Debra Rowett (Chair of Accreditation Committee Australian Pharmacy Council) that delivered information about School of Pharmacy accreditation in Australia. In that kangaroo country, the accreditation is divided into 3 levels, including Preliminary Accreditation, Provisional Accreditation, and Full Accreditation.