Pharmacy operations within the Japan Disaster Relief (JDR) medical team during the 2025 Myanmar Earthquake:...

To document and analyze the medical relief activities conducted following the 2025 Myanmar Earthquake and to contribute to the improvement of international disaster medical response frameworks.

This is a descriptive qualitative study.

Disaster site in central Myanmar.

In response to the extensive damage caused by the earthquake, the Government of Japan deployed a Japan Disaster Relief (JDR) medical team to Myanmar. This decision was made following the identification of urgent medical needs. The pharmaceutical responses of the JDR medical team to the Myanmar Earthquake were reviewed.

Pharmacists pharmaceutical interventions in the context of disaster medical care extracted from daily activity reports, dispensing records, and chronological logs maintained by the medical team.

Following the JDR medical teams pharmaceutical response, pharmacists protocol-based pharmacotherapy management (PBPM) in collaboration with physicians was enacted prior to the start of medical activities. Pharmacy roles were equitably distributed between dispensing and providing support to other professionals. The use of pictorial aids enabled pharmacists to effectively communicate medication instructions. Points for improvement include ensuring the quality of the cold chain for cold-stored pharmaceuticals and reviewing the list of topical medications according to the type of disaster.

PBPM has emerged as an effective approach that allows pharmacists to assist in prescription management under predefined protocols, potentially reducing physician workload. The application of task shifting and sharing serves as a pragmatic strategy for the redistribution of clinical responsibilities, thereby enabling a more efficient deployment of limited medical personnel in disaster response settings.