Graduation Ceremony 22
Thursday 10 December 2015 at 1630hrs – Jesuits Church Valletta
Graduand’s Speech
Louise Grech
It is with great honour that I stand here, as a Ph.D. graduand, to deliver this address on the occasion of
today’s graduation ceremony; an occasion bringing together colleagues from my pharmacy profession
and other graduands from the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery and from the Faculty of Health Sciences.
I received the invitation to deliver this oration as I was travelling back from the Annual American College
of Rheumatology conference in San Francisco, where I presented a paper on my dissertation related to
pharmacist-led pharmacotherapy assessment in the field of rheumatology. I was overwhelmed with
emotions and looked forward to sharing with you my thoughts on this occasion.
Today is a milestone in our lives. Looking back over the past years of study, which go far beyond the
University years, we realise how much we have accomplished. We have become professionals endowed
with clinical expertise as well as research skills, that will help us to work together and with our patients.
We will always remember the lectures, tutorials, practicals, the many hours of studying for exams and in
the case of my fellow Ph.D. graduands the many, many moments of despair, crazy deadlines and tears
when we thought we would not make it. But, perseverance is the key to success and this in itself, is a
lesson we learn through our University years. Having spent a number of years studying within a
University scenario, I believe that the University as an institution, does not only offer the necessary
academic education required to practise our respective professions, but it also makes us who we are
professionally. Indeed as we pass through the Gateway building at the University campus, one comes
across the following inscription: “Fittex hawn min hu l-veru int... dak li s’issa qatt m’gharaft”. This
inscription holds so true.
When I graduated with my bachelors degree in pharmacy in 2002, like many of my colleagues, I was
eager to leave the University and start the pharmacy career thinking I was now a complete pharmacist
having everything required to be a good hospital pharmacist. A year later, I started my career as a
clinical pharmacist and this was a dream come true. However, despite my enthusiasm, I felt there was
something missing in my career. I needed to further my studies to improve my expertise and eventually
improve the service I offer to my patients. With the support of my family, I enrolled for a Master of
Philosophy degree at the University of Strathclyde. Travelling back and forth to Scotland and
intermingling with multicultural dynamic pharmacists as well as other healthcare professionals, both in
Scotland and in Malta, I learnt to incorporate the research work into the clinical practice. Once I
completed the M.Phil. I decided to go on for a Ph.D. since I still felt I required to strengthen my clinical
skills through research to be able to drive forward my practice to the next higher level of quality of care.
The Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, led by the Dean, Professor Godfrey LaFerla, and the Faculty
Doctoral Committee chaired by Professor Richard Muscat, transmit the message to graduates to take up
further studies and through research contribute to developments in our areas. The Faculty of Medicine
and Surgery and the Faculty of Health Sciences are composed of diverse professionals having a common
passionate goal, namely that of seeking innovative means of integrating scientific concepts within a
multidisciplinary approach and interlinking the different professions. The success of these health
faculties lies in actively engaging students to reach full potential where excellence becomes the habit
and attitude, ingrained in our practice. I have personally experienced this through my supervisors.
Professor Victor Ferrito who is an established scientist, has guided me into merging the scientific
approach with the clinical pharmacy practice research leading to my dissertation which is an example of
translational pharmacy research. Professor Anthony Serracino-Inglott, a leader in the development of
clinical pharmacy in Malta, encouraged me to approach clinical pharmacy research as a means to
contribute to innovation in professional services.
My fellow Ph.D. graduands will agree that the Ph.D. is a journey across a sea of networking with the
opportunity to share a thousand ideas and to go out into the research arena and disseminate results
from our work. It is not an easy journey but it is not an impossible one. At the end of the journey, the
satisfaction is overwhelming. It is a satisfaction that as healthcare professionals, we have in our different
areas of expertise, contributed to research that leads to improve the service offered to patients, who
remain at the centre of our professions. It is a satisfaction that we have made our tutors, the Faculty,
the Alma Mater, our families, friends, colleagues at work and our patients proud of our achievements.
As we become aware that we are no longer who we were when we joined the University, we must also
understand that this graduation ceremony is only one milestone and it is not the end of the road. We
have to keep on looking forward, keeping the enthusiasm we are feeling today at the centre of our daily
professions and academic output.
Nature adapts itself in order to survive and this is exactly what we have to do to sustain our professions
and our Alma Mater. Gone are the days when pharmacists spent their majority of time reconstituting
extemporaneous medicines, as my late grandfather Joseph Agius, used to do in his Paola pharmacy.
Nowadays, the pharmacist dispenses ready-made medicines. But is that all there is to pharmacy? What
about the patient advice which goes with the dispensing process of the medicine? What about checking
drug interactions, food interactions and more importantly the monitoring of the patients’ health
condition be it, hypertension, diabetes mellitus or the more complex rheumatoid arthritis? What about
the clinical application of pharmacokinetic aspects of drugs, the concentration of drugs such as
ciprofloxacin and clindamycin in peripheral tissues and the genotyping applied to the use of drugs such
as clopidogrel? These latter issues were studied closely by my colleagues Janis Vella and Francesca
Wirth, also graduating today with a Ph.D. in pharmacy. What about the pharmaceutical care services
offered at patients’ bedside in medical, surgical and intensive care units? What about clinical services
offered within community pharmacies? The pharmacist is a trusted healthcare professional working in
close collaboration with all the other members of the team. There is a need to have more clinical
pharmacists at our hospitals, to extend the role of pharmacist-led clinics where point-of-care testing,
drug response and patient monitoring is carried out by pharmacists in collaboration with clinicians.
There is a need to further expand and strengthen the clinical pharmacy services within community
pharmacies. These services are already the run-of-the-mill in the United States where clinical pharmacy
developed in the 1970s. Is this possible locally or is this just a dream? Within our Department of
Pharmacy, we already enjoy excellence in achieving high standards of clinical pharmacy in teaching and
research. I am grateful that I am part of a team led by experienced internationally-acknowledged
leaders who with vision, have taken up pharmacy education and research to a next level through the
recent introduction of a doctorate of pharmacy degree, the Pharm.D. This innovative level-8
postgraduate course is offered by the University of Malta in collaboration with the University of Chicago,
Illinois. This course is providing pharmacists from different countries the opportunity of expanding their
clinical expertise, research skills and networking profile to further the quality of the professional services
offered to patients. Currently, there are students from eight different countries spanning from Germany
to Uganda following this course. I am pleased to note that some of the Master of Pharmacy graduands
here today have already embarked on the Pharm.D course and I encourage other pharmacists to follow
suit. A postgraduate degree in every profession, is not just an academic degree but an enriching
experience through which the student emerges holistically stronger in all aspects and subsequently all
society benefits.
And now allow me on behalf of all graduands, to thank our families and friends who have had to put up
with our moods and possible tantrums during our years of study; the academic and the non-academic
staff in our Faculties; the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, Professor Godfrey LaFerla for his
drive to promote translational research through joint inter-departmental collaborations, and the Rector,
Professor Juanito Camilleri, for having the leadership and vision for the University of Malta to progress.
A heartfelt thank you to all the University staff who year after year, graduation after graduation, tiring as
it may be, ensure that each graduation ceremony runs smoothly.
My fellow graduands at all levels, I wish you luck and I hope that this graduation ceremony is not the
end of our successful studies but the continuation of a journey at looking ‘who we are’ through further
academic experiences and participation in research. As for us Ph.D. graduands and buddies from
pharmacy and beyond, we promise to continue helping others reach our level and to disseminate our
experience for the benefit of our Alma Mater and as a tribute to our mentors who have helped us reach
these exceptionally high standards. And finally, let’s graduate!