Peter A.G.M. De Smet is a retired drug information pharmacist and clinical pharmacologist, emeritus professor of pharmaceutical patient care, and lyricist.Pharm Weekbl 2018;153(10):11-14Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd. 2023;167:B2228 He is still active as an ethnopharmacological and ethnomedical researcher.
Drug therapy and pharmaceutical care (1979-present) In the 1980s, De Smet was the chief designer of the Dutch drug database, which is still essential in Dutch healthcare.De Smet PAGM. The Dutch approach to computerized drug information: conceptual basis and realization. J Social Adm Pharm 1988;5:49-58 His professional publications have primarily focused on medication safety,De Smet PAGM, Van Loenen AC, Offerhaus L. Medicatiebegeleiding: de medisch-farmaceutische achtergronden van verantwoord geneesmiddelengebruik. Houten: Bohn Stafleu Van Loghum, 1990HARM-wrestling: een voorstel van de Expertgroep Medicatieveiligheid m.b.t. concrete interventies die de extramurale medicatieveiligheid op korte termijn kunnen verbeteren. Den Haag: Ministerie van Volksgezondheid, Welzijn en Sport 2009Warlé-van Herwaarden MF, Kramers C, Sturkenboom MC, Van den Bemt PM, De Smet PAGM. Targeting outpatient drug safety: recommendations of the Dutch HARM-Wrestling Task Force. Drug Saf 2012;35:245-59 medication incidents, drug adherence, pharmaceutical care,De Gier JJ, Bouvy ML, Egberts ACG, De Smet PAGM. Handboek farmaceutische patientenzorg: achtergronden en praktijk. Houten: Prelum, 2013 and drug substitution.De Smet PAGM. Leidraad geneesmiddelsubstitutie: een medisch-farmaceutische notitie. 's-Gravenhage, Koninklijke Nederlandse Maatschappij ter bevordering der Pharmacie, 1990De Smet PAGM, Van der Kuy A, Bonsel GA. Klassensubstitutie als doelmatigheidsinstrument in de geneesmiddelenvoorziening: mogelijkheden en beperkingen. Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd. 2002;146:553-7
Phytotherapy, ethnopharmacology, and ethnomedicine (1980-present) In 1985, De Smet published an ethnopharmacological PhD thesis on intoxicating enemas and snuffs in the Americas. He published the chapter on intoxicating enemas among the pre-Columbian Maya together with Nicholas Hellmuth as a separate article in 1986.De Smet PAGM, Hellmuth NM. A multidisciplinary approach to ritual enema scenes on ancient Maya pottery. J Ethnopharmacol 1986;16:213-262https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-8741(86)90091-7. See for an extensive update: https://www.academia.edu/44799913/4P_9a_Drink_enema_rituals_in_ancient_Maya_art_Part_one_text; https://www.academia.edu/44799914/4P_9b_Drink_enema_rituals_in_ancient_Maya_art_Part_two_figures
His phytotherapeutic publications have focused on the clinical pharmacologyDe Smet PAGM. Geneesmiddelen uit de natuur: ouderwets concept of belofte voor de toekomst? Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd. 2023 Apr 6;167:D7513 and safety of herbal medicines and plant-derived drugs.De Smet PAGM, Keller K, Hänsel R, Chandler R.F. (eds) Adverse Effects of Herbal Drugs Vols 1-3. Berlin: Springer, 1992-1997De Smet PAGM. Clinical risk management of herb-drug interactions. Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2007;63:258-67. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2125.2006.02797.x He has also published articles on the legislation of herbal medicines, herbal pharmacokinetics, herbal pharmacoepidemiology, and herbal pharmacoeconomics.
De Smet served three times as guest curator in an ethnological museum and each time wrote the catalogue for the exhibition.De Smet PAGM. Herbs, health and healers: Africa as ethnopharmacological treasury. Berg en Dal: Afrika Museum, 1999De Smet PAGM. Different truths: ethnomedicine in early postcards. Amsterdam: Tropenmuseum/KIT Publishers, 2010De Smet PAGM, Ian Reader. Health-related votive tablets from Japan: ema for healing and well-being. Leiden: Japanmuseum Sieboldhuis/Leiden University Press, 2017 He is currently working on a major 4P-Project (Patients Practitioners Practices Plants) that will provide global coverage of the material cultures of ethnomedicine and ethnopharmacology.
He located archaeological material of the peyote cactus in the Witte Museum in San Antonio, USA. Radiocarbon dating showed that the material was 5700 years old and chemical analysis demonstrated that the hallucinogenic alkaloid mescaline was still present.
De Smet co-founded the International Society for Ethnopharmacology in 1990 and participated in the Project Group for International Classification of Traditional Medicine (ICTM) of the World Health Organization (WHO). The latter project resulted in a special chapter on traditional medicine (TM) in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD 11).
Honors & awards Knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion (2019)Pharm Weekbl 2019;154(18):20 Honorary Medal Royal Dutch Pharmaceutical Association (2018)Pharm Weekbl 2018;153(12):21 Ig Nobel prize for art history (2022) for the 1986 article on intoxicating Maya enemas Winner of the First National Lyrics Writing Competition with the Dutch song text Tegen beter weten in (Against the odds) (1995), which led to the music CD Allemaal mensen (All of them human) in 1996.
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