MHB at meeting of pharmacy students’ national association

Brandenburg an der Havel, 15 November 2023

Prof. Dawid Pieper heads the Zentrum für Versorgungsforschung Brandenburg (Brandenburg Center for Health Services Research) and the Institut für Versorgungs- und Gesundheitssystemforschung (Institute of Health Services and Health Systems Research) at the Fakultät für Gesundheitswissenschaften (Faculty of Health Sciences), Brandenburg Medical School Theodor Fontane (MHB). He was a keynote speaker at the 135th meeting of the national association of pharmacy students BPhD. The focus was on Brandenburg as the only non-city state nationwide without training sites for pharmacists.

Addressing more than 150 pharmacy students from all 22 institutions offering pharmacy studies in Germany, alumni of the association and guests, Prof. Pieper underlined the importance of pharmacy studies and interprofessional collaboration for healthcare provision. It makes sense, so Pieper, to join forces in the training phase and thus create a basis for future constructive cooperation.  

Brandenburg had no medical school until the MHB was founded in 2014 to ensure and improve healthcare provision in the region. Over 820 students are currently enrolled in MHB courses of medicine, psychology and health services research, and another 48 will start in the new Brandenburg model curriculum of dental medicine next year. The first cohort of medical graduates left the MHB in 2021. About 60 physicians trained and qualified at the MHB are employed at hospitals in Brandenburg. As a non-profit institution under municipal sponsorship, the MHB receives annual funding of 5 million Euro for research from the regional government up to 2024. A further 1.6 million Euro support its share in building a joint Faculty of Health Sciences in collaboration with the University of Potsdam and the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg.

In her words of greeting BPhdD president Johanna Kintrup pointed out that a training facility for pharmacists could help to keep young graduates in the region and thus to counter skills shortages, and that the focus of the 135^th meeting was a chance to highlight the problem.

Jens Dobbert as president of the Landesapothekerkammer Brandenburg (Brandenburg pharmacists’ association) also stressed the necessity and benefits of a Brandenburg institution of pharmacy studies, which his association had been advocating for years. He concluded with an invitation to the BPhD and the Cottbus student representatives to hold talks about the possibility of pharmacy studies in Brandenburg and the development of the required educational facilities.