Pharmacy Daily | MyDispense keeps growing

THE MyDispense online pharmacist training platform developed by the Monash Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (PD 15 Oct 2012) has seen "exponential growth" through the pandemic, with interest in the system continuing to grow even with students returning to campus.

First created in 2011, by Jan 2020 MyDispense had accumulated 16,000 student accounts - a figure which has almost tripled to 42,300 over the last two years.

The number of partner universities using the platform has also increased, from 79 before the pandemic to 208 today.

A free service provided by Monash, MyDispense has been customised for 10 different regions across the globe, with students now using the tool in Germany, the Philippines, South Africa, Nepal, Sweden, Somalia, Pakistan, Botswana, Zimbabwe and more.

Monash Learning Technologies Project Manager, Keith Sewell, said MyDispense aimed to provide a safe environment in which pharmacy students can hone their dispensing skills, but also make mistakes without the serious consequences of practising in the real world.

"Students get to have the full dispensing experience, from initial communication with the patient and prescriber, right through to providing professional advice when handing medicine to patients - and the whole experience is completely online," he said.

"Early in 2020 it quickly became evident that there was going to be strong global demand for access to MyDispense to help pharmacy students continue to develop important dispensing skills throughout lockdowns and campus closures.

"It was a lot of work for the team, but from the outset the purpose of MyDispense has been to share the platform for free with our pharmacy peers around the world, so it has been wonderful to see so many students benefit from it since COVID emerged just over two years ago," Sewell added.

Almost 1.5 million exercises and activities have been completed in MyDispense by students from all over the world.