Institut Teknologi Bandung

During their visit to Chiang Mai University, delegation of Pharmacy ITB was warmly welcomed by Dr. Penkarn, Dr. Suporn, Dr. Supat, and Dr. Kannika. Furthermore, two Pharmacy ITB lecturers  were invited to deliver a guest lecture. Dr. rer.nat. Rachmat Mauludin conveyed the topic "Drug Dosage Forms and Lipid Nanoparticles on Nanocrystal," and then followed by Dr. Lia Amalia who presented the results of her research on "The Effect of Ethanol Extract of Garlic chives (Allium schoenoprasum L.) Bulbs on Heart Rate Frequency and Amplitude in hypertensive-Induced Male Wistar Rats". This lecture was not only attended by CMU's undergraduate students, but also graduate students.

Curious about medicinal plant, they were taken by CMU botanist to surround Medicinal Plant Garden in CMU. In Medicinal Plant Museum, botanist also explained about some of medicinal plants which is commonly used by Thai people. Some of plants are found in Indonesia too, but the others indeed endemic in Thailand.

In the next journey, they visited Chiang Mai Hospital, specifically to Drug Division, together with 3 students from University Tennessee that were doing internship in Faculty of Pharmacy Chiang Mai University at that moment. In the beginning, the official shared a presentation about Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR) monitoring system. ADR is the unintended reactions emerged by taking a drug. ADR Monitoring system in Thailand has been well established. Patients are completed with a card that contains a history of allergies and the presence of ADR. Following the presentation, presenter asked students both from ITB and University of Tennessee to discuss about ADR monitoring system in their own country and compared them.

There was also a session where students from CMU and ITB gathered. It was called cultural performance. Students from ITB showed Saman Dance from Aceh and performed an accoustic band, called Pharmacoustic. The exclamation was growing loudly when they performed an original song from Thailand. This session successfully unified students from two different languages, cultures, and countries. "Seeing students from different countries gathered and build a new beautiful friendship made me proud and blessed. In future, I hope these students with their new experience can learn many things and make a great advance for Pharmacy in Indonesia," Dr. rer. nat. Sophi Damayanti said. Sophi is Coordinator of International Class and also take a role as Technical Manager in this program.

The next destination was the Faculty of Pharmacy, Mahidol University which is located in Bangkok. Besides listening to the description of pharmacy program at Mahidol University, ITB delegation also invited to laboratory tour. At Mahidol University, Laboratory of Quality Analysis for students and industrial service is separated. This lab have received ISO certificate. Dedication Faculty of Pharmacy  Mahidol University to community is showed by the existence of Drug Information Center (DIC). People can ask everything about drugs to DIC. It also publish newsletter which can be accessed by people. In addition, Mahidol University also has Medicinal Drug Information Center (MDIC), which collects information about medicinal plants and publish in website which can be accessed by public. This information is updated everyday.

Both of students and lecturers admitted that they obtained a lot of valuable lessons from this program. "Lecturers had an opportunity to observe directly education system in other country and perform guest lecture. For students, they are expected to build a network for Pharmacy's students in ASEAN," Sophi said. She added, "I would like to say my gratitude to International Officer from CMU, Ms. Sutiney, Ms. Umaporn, and from Mahidol University, Mr. Amporn, and also to SF ITB, so that this program could be realized." Team leader from students also admitted that his role in this program was easier than he had thought. "This is a dream team, literally. They are active, participative, and solutive. Togetherness and solidarity have made us a solid team until this program ended," Ujang said.