What lies ahead for MyDispense?
MyDispense is a free, online education tool developed by the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science, which allows pharmacy students to develop confidence and skills in learning how to dispense medicines. Used by hundreds of pharmacy schools globally, we look at its history and importance, and why the future trajectory of MyDispense is at a crossroads.
MyDispense has been an incredible success story for Monash University, with hundreds of pharmacy schools around the world now using the groundbreaking technology developed and run right here. However, the free online education tool is now at crossroads, according to Keith Sewell, Learning Technologies Project Manager.
“This is an important and exciting phase of the project, however, the time is approaching when we need to either try for bigger things or to face capacity limitations and restrict the development we are able to do in the future,” Keith says.
“If we wish to continue to provide a current and relevant simulation for pharmacists in training we can't stand still. We need to continue to update the software in pace with changes in pharmacy practice worldwide.”
Why MyDispense matters so much
MyDispense aims to reduce the incidence of dispensing errors - something that kills or injures thousands of people annually.
One study found that, in the United States alone, between 7,000 and 9,000 people die every year as a result of ‘medication error’. Hundreds of thousands more experience adverse reactions or other medication complications, many of which go unreported.
Although quality data is less available in lower- and middle-income countries, the impact of dispensing error is likely to be far greater still. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that in these countries, twice as many health years are lost through dispensing errors. The WHO also estimated that, in 2017, dispensing errors cost the global economy US$42 billion (A$65.5 billion) annually - or one per cent of total global health expenditure, making it an economic as well as a health-related problem.
An incredible growth journey
Monash launched MyDispense in 2011 to train students in the Faculty by providing them with an online simulation environment that allowed them to practice and hone their dispensing skills. In doing so, it allowed them the freedom to make dispensing mistakes without serious consequences before entering a real-world environment.
My Dispense quickly became an international success story. In 2013, the first overseas version, MyDispense Namibia, was launched. In 2014, this was followed by MyDispense South Africa, MyDispense USA and MyDispense Malaysia.
But it wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic struck that MyDispense saw its period of most rapid growth. During 2020 many universities switched from teaching in-person to online learning. As a result, the number of pharmacy schools using the simulator more than doubled from 86 to 180.
L-R: Keith Sewell, Marian Costelloe, Keenan Beaumont
“We have been told, more than once, that MyDispense kept the experiential component of pharmacy courses viable during this difficult time,” Keith explained. “Despite the widespread return to face-to-face learning, the vast majority of these schools have retained MyDispense as part of their instructional model.”
“The COVID-19 pandemic showed us that our project has real-world value, and that our project team is highly flexible and capable of delivering under demanding circumstances.”
Today, it is used by no fewer than 225 pharmacy schools across 41 countries. All together, more than 41,000 students have now benefitted from MyDispense, together logging in more than 650,000 times to complete over 1.6 million case studies.
MyDispense has been referred to in no fewer than 39 academic publications and has picked up several Awards, including a 2022 Australian Financial Review Award for the Learning and Teaching Excellence category.
Making MyDispense even better
“We believe that MyDispense can increase its impact in two broad ways: by reaching into new countries and expanding the scope of the software to encompass a wider range of healthcare challenges,” Keith explained.
“We need to evolve to stay at the leading edge of the changing pharmacy profession, including support for pharmacist prescribing, vaccinations, ePharmacy and more.”
“We plan to build on the work we have already done in electronic health records to provide comprehensive support for inpatient pharmacy.”
“Ideally, we would build a platform for inter-professional learning in the health professions and use this platform to bridge communication gaps in transitions of care, where many medication-related errors can occur. In the global context, we need to reach further into the world of pharmacy education by strategically targeting regions such as India and South America, which together account for 23% of the global population.”
Before this can happen, however, some work needs to be done. The software developed 10 years ago needs updating in light of current technology and also to continue to protect users’ data and privacy from potential threats. The platform must also be further customised for each new region it enters - both for language and also for the rules and regulations of the jurisdiction in which it is being used. This requires significant funding.
Keeping MyDispense accessible
At the same time, Keith explains, a founding principle of MyDispense was that the platform should be free because it ensured equity of access.
“Part of what makes MyDispense unique is that it offers students of resource-poor pharmacy schools in the developing world the same high-quality product that students of Ivy League, Russell Group and Go8 institutions get,” he said.
“But ‘free at point of access’ does not mean ‘free to run’. Monash bears the costs, and as MyDispense has grown in popularity, those costs have grown ever greater.”
“We are rapidly approaching the limit of what we can reasonably support with the resources available to us,” he concluded.
Consider making a donation to MyDispense today, visit monash.edu/pharm/alumni/support
