Dr. Gury ZILKHA
Dr. Gury Zilkha is an Economic and Organizational Consultant. Dr.
Zilkha is a senior consultant to the Israeli council for R & D at
the Ministry of Science Technology and space. He served in senior
positions in both the public and private sectors. Dr. Zilkha also
served as the Director General for the Council of Higher Education
and the Planning and Budgeting Committee of Israel between 1990 and
1997. During this time the higher education sector expanded and many
new institutions were added to the system. Dr. Zilkha has degrees in
economics business administration and education from the Hebrew
University and Bar Ilan University and is a graduate of the
Fulbright- Humphrey Program at Pennsylvania State University, U.S.A.
Dr. IKEGAMI Sako
Sako
was raised and educated in New York City before returning to Japan to
study biological pharmacy at Kyoto Pharmaceutical University,
graduating with a Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Science in 1982. She
pursued further graduate studies in clinical pharmacy back in the US,
and was awarded a post-BS Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree from the
Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Graduate School at Massachusetts
College of Pharmacy in 1986. With both hospital pharmacist experience
at Toranomon Hospital and an R&D researcher at Novartis Pharma
K.K. and Bayer Yakuhin Co. Ltd., she is well-versed in both clinical
pharmacy practice and pharmaceutical research. Apart from teaching
part-time at Kyoto Pharmaceutical University, she is primarily a
medical communicator, providing translation, interpretation, and
medical writing services to the medical and pharmaceutical community.
Her passion includes the translation of books and novels for children
and adults.
KEYNOTE SPEECH: Education, R & D and Quality of Life
(bio)
Dr. Gury ZILKHA (guryz@bezeqint.net)
Zilkha Consultancy, Israel
For centuries education was the trigger for human development. New
knowledge and technological revolutions brought the world to new
economic heights. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution in
Britain world production and gross national income grew in an
enormous speed.
For decades countries tend to express their economic achievements by
measuring their gross national product in monetary terms. Gross
national product (GDP) and GDP per capita became the key indicators
for economic growth.
In recent years, due to economic crisis and growing social problems,
there was a public demand to establish additional tools and measures
and to develop new indicators that will express more thoroughly the
complexity of economic and social issues.
In addition to monetary indexes and terms, new social aspects
pertaining to the quality of life were developed. Some Aspects of
Quality of Life that will be discussed in this presentation:
Formal Education- K-12
Third Mission of Higher Education
LLL- Life Long Learning
Research and Development
Innovation
Socio Economic Aspects
What Influences Quality of Life?
Welfare State Vs. Liberal Economy:
Liberal
Economy
Small
Government
Low
Taxation Welfare State Vs. Liberal Economy
Low
Regulation
High
Gini Index
Low
Welfare Expenditures
Welfare State
Big Government
High Taxation
High Regulation
Low Gini Index
High welfare Expenditures
Material Living Conditions (Income & consumption)
Health
Education
Leisure and Social Interaction
Economic and Physical Safety
Natural and Living Environment
Overall Experience of Life
In the last two decades Israel has experienced dramatic changes in
higher education- from semi-monolithic system that consists mainly on
research universities it developed toward two tier system that has
many colleges alongside with old universities. The new colleges could
absorb the growing demand for higher education.
Israeli Higher Education System:
Higher education and research and development are crucial factors in
economic and human development. Israeli expenditure on R&D as a
percentage of GDP is one of the highest in the world (over 4.5%). The
higher education system enables more than half of the relevant age
group to study in higher education institutions. Israeli industrial
innovation is expressed in large and dominant hi-tech sector. Still
the Israeli system lacks the ability to confront other aspects and
issues of quality of life, mainly high social gaps in Israel society.
A new model for higher education that links outputs to normative
inputs that are measured in real terms can put forward the lack of
real measurement of expected expenditure in each academic field
according to its teaching and research nature. That model can put
forward socio-economic indicators for funding higher education and
R&D in Israel.
Investments in R&D in Israel are done mainly by the private
sector. R&D is the key factor for innovation and it is dominant
in the Hi-tech industry. The Hi-tech industries employ less than 10%
of the work force. Government economic policy is liberal oriented and
lacks the ability to deal with social gaps in society.
In order to enhance quality of life governments should aim to develop
strategic planning that combines economic issues alongside with
social development.
KEYNOTE SPEECH: From God to Neighborhood Druggist and Beyond
～ The Pharmacist ～
Changing image, changing roles, but ever a friendly and informative community figure
(bio)
Dr. IKEGAMI Sako
Doctor of Pharmacy, Lecturer, Kyoto Pharmaceutical University
We’ve been known by a variety of names or titles: shaman, chemist,
medicine man, witch, healer, wise woman, apotheker, alchemist,
druggist, dispenser, or pharmacist, but the services we provide to
the community have remained the same. With a wealth of knowledge
regarding medications, both biological and chemical, and well versed
in their risks and benefits, we have, over the centuries, provided
people in our communities with the specific drug or healthcare
information that they need: to heal, if they are ill, or enhance
their health, if they are not.
Our history most likely began 5000 years ago in China with a man
(or perhaps he was a deity) who taught his people to tame the land,
inventing the plow and the burning of fields to make them more
fertile, encouraging hunter-gatherers to cultivate and eat grains
instead of relying on a haphazard diet of wild plant and animal life.
Yes, Shennong, or Shinno-san as he is fondly called in Japan, is
often depicted chewing on some vegetation, testing it to discover its
properties.
The knowledge he imparted has been passed down through the
generations to form the foundation of what we call Oriental medicine,
while in the Occident, a similar body of knowledge was compiled by a
men and women who similarly sought enlightenment and eternal life in
the form of alchemy or homeopathic medicine.
For as long as humans have walked this earth, malady has been an
unwelcome, yet constant presence in our lives. Ever unwilling to
surrender without a struggle, man has fought against premature
arrival of the shrouded black figure with his ominous sickle. Prayer,
religion, sacrifice, and ritual, herbs or other medicinal plants and
animals were searched for some cure, some way to stave off the
illness. In fact, it was the rich earth, the soil itself which
contained an organism, too small for the naked eye, yet potent enough
to rescue us from pathogens which had been the main cause of death
through much of history. As alchemy developed from mystique into the
science of chemical synthesis, the 20th century enjoyed a
golden age of synthetic compounds with miraculous powers that could
bring even those on the brink of death back to us.
Carbonated or fizzy drinks were a luxury before bottling
techniques became widely available in the 1950s. Before the advent of
modern pharmaceuticals, many pharmacies had little to offer locals
except for powders, elixirs, cordials, and curative spring waters,
and so it was natural these would have the facilities to provide
carbonated soda drinks. This informal setting was conducive to
establishing the drugstore as a place for people to gather in the
community, for medications, for beverages, and for socialization.
And now, as scientists have finally unraveled some of the fundamental
mysteries of the double-helix and are currently in the process of
deciphering the nucleotide codes that make up one of the most basic
components of life itself, a new age of drugs has opened the door to
a realm that was heretofore unvisited. It holds immense potentials.
However, these drugs have become ever more complex and expensive and
the knowledge to wield them ever more challenging.
What comes into question here are the qualifications that the
pharmacist will need..
Kyoto Pharmaceutical University is the second oldest school of
pharmacy in Japan, established in 1884 by students of a German
scholar, Dr. Rudolf Lehmann. Since that time, it has seen its
graduates become leading members of society in all walks of life
related to pharmacy and medicine.
How do the qualifications of the pharmacist differ depending on the
type and length of education they receive? And what qualifications
are necessary in each setting?
A pharmacist who sells drugs over the counter has different needs
that one embedded in a major critical-care center. How does a PharmD
differ from a PhD, or an MS such as the students that graduate from
this institution? What, ultimately, will be the needs for which we
must prepare our youth? As the world evolves, we peer into a crystal
ball trying to foresee the challenges our students will face so that
they can be trained to ensure that they are ready.
All areas of the globe are now connected via the internet, and
people turn to Facebook, Twitter, and other SNS for medical
information of questionable veracity. It is no wonder then that the
Japanese health ministry has designated the community pharmacist as a
purveyor of reliable healthcare-related information at the local
level.
The sharing of a common language and around-the-clock electronic
connection via the internet allows us to share so much. Now we draw
from a much broader and deeper foundation of knowledge and awareness
which will allow us to share our achievements near-instantaneously.
Working together, we can accomplish what individuals cannot to ensure
a better quality of life for all. Contrary to what arithmetic has
taught us, if we put aside our differences and share our knowledge
and achievements, the result will always be greater than a sum of the
parts, allowing us to overcome the challenges that the universe
throws our way.