Widening Our Horizons: Pharmacy Practice from a Global Perspective.

Part of the vision of the Canadian Journal of Hospital Pharmacy (CJHP)1 is to share information on “patient-centred pharmacy practice in hospitals and other collaborative health care settings . . . throughout the world.” With this in mind, the Journal will be publishing a series of papers describing health care systems around the globe and the role that pharmacists play within these systems. By inviting international authors to share their countries’ approaches to providing pharmaceutical care and information about services offered in hospital, community, and other related health care settings, the CJHP Editorial Board hopes to enable readers to better understand and learn about other practice innovations and systems and to allow pharmacists to gain an appreciation for pharmacy practices globally. The International Perspectives on Pharmacy Practice series will focus on diverse countries in each of the world’s regions, reflecting different health care systems and pharmacy roles. The series will consist of articles that address health care and pharmacy practice within the 6 World Health Organization (WHO) regions2: Africa, the Americas, South-East Asia, Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Western Pacific. The series will run over a period of 2 years, with 2 manuscripts from each of the regions (for a total of 12 papers in total). All manuscripts in the series will follow the standard peer review process for CJHP submissions. The first article in the series, which appears in this issue, is from the Western Pacific region.3 In it, one of CJHP’s Associate Editors, Rebekah Moles, and her colleague, Paulina Stehlik, provide an overview of and information related to the Australian health care system. Each of the papers, including this one, will have a standard format based on the building blocks outlined by the WHO Health Systems Framework,4 and will cover the following topics: • health system leadership/governance and health care financing • health information and research • health workforce • health service delivery • access to medical products, vaccines, and technology • future directions Each article will include information on the model of leadership for the specific country’s health care system, an overview of the growth rate of health care expenditures, details about how health care is funded, a list of health status indicators, and information about the country’s health care workforce, including entry-to-practice requirements for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, specialization and credentialing of pharmacists, and scopes of practice of health care professionals. The articles will also describe drug distribution systems, procurement, distribution and storage of medicines and related products, health records systems, and vaccine monitoring systems. Finally, the authors may comment on any anticipated changes in practice. The CJHP Editorial Board is excited about this new series, which will increase awareness among Canadian and other pharmacist readers of global practices, and we are interested in reader feedback about the series. Also, if you (or anyone you know) are interested in contributing to the series, please get in touch with us at [email protected]. We hope that you enjoy CJHP ’s international series!