Online CPD providers are organizations who are accredited by the Pharmacy Council to run accredited CPD programs on their websites/platforms for pharmacists. Pharmacists who take such programs will be credited by the Council as is done for on-site CPD programs.
This document details how registered online CPD providers are to submit attendance for pharmacists who take programs on their websites.
The procedure is as follows:
- Registration by the Council and generation of authentication details (one-time)
- Accreditation of topics to be ran on the platform
- Retrieval of topic IDs
- Submitting of attendance
1. Registration and generation of authentication details
To register as an accredited online CPD provider, you must fill the application forms and submit them to the Education, Training and Research department of the Council. When the application is vetted and approved, a user id and an authentication key would be automatically generated and sent to your email address.
The authentication key is a string of random alphanumeric characters that is unique for each registered provider. The id is a number that uniquely identifies each registered provider. Both of these will have to be provided each time you submit attendance.
The registration process is done only once. The id is permanent. But the authentication may be changed by the Council when necessary.
2. Running programs on your platform (1)
Once you have your id and authentication key, you are ready to run programs for pharmacists.
It is important to note that topics you intend to run on your platform must first be accredited by the Council, even if the same topic had been ran in a normal on-site session.
It is the responsibility of the provider of the program to get accreditation for a topic. Once that accreditation is obtained, you (the online host) may then apply to run that program on your website/platform. If the application is granted, you may run the course on your platform. In other words:
- The program must be accredited
- You (the online provider/platform host) must be accredited
- The program must be approved to run on your platform
If you submit attendance for a program that you were not approved to run on your platform, it will be rejected. Even if the program itself had been accredited to be ran online.
3. Running programs on your platform (2): Getting the CPD topic id
The Council assigns a unique id to every accredited CPD topic. This id required when submitting attendance. The id is typically sent to you (the online host) when a topic is approved for you to run on your platform.
However it may be requested from the Education, Training and Research department of the Council at any time.
4. The API: Submitting attendance
Attendance for all programs ran online must be sent online to the Council via the API. The API is simply a url that your server can call to update the Council’s server with attendance records for a pharmacist who has completed a program successfully on your platform.
Below are the details of the API
Address:
https://manager.pcghana.org/api_cpd_online/submitattendance
Method:
GET
Query Parameters:
- platform_id
- This is the unique id number given to each online provider. It is typically sent to you via email when your application is approved.
- auth_id
- This is the authentication key generated for each online provider. It is string of random alphanumeric characters. It may look like this: 175a0d97d9df68559d82. It is typically sent to you via email when your application is approved.
- cpd_id
- This is the unique Pharmacy Council id of the topic/program that attendance is being submitted for. It is typically sent to a provider when the topic is approved to be ran on their platform
- registration_number
- This refers to the unique registration number of the pharmacist whom attendance is being submitted for. Any one of these formats is acceptable:
- The alphabets must be separated from the number by a space.
- certificate
- This refers to the certificate number you issue to the pharmacist for completing the topic/program.
ALL PARAMETERS ARE REQUIRED.
The full url may look like this:
https://manager.pcghana.org/api_cpd_online/submitattendance?platform_id=2&cpd_id=95®istration_number=hpa 3343&auth=175a0d97d9df68559d82&certificate=0008909
Given that:
- The id of the platform (online provider) is: 2
- The Council id of the CPD topic is: 95
- The registration number of the pharmacist is: hpa 3343
- The authentication key of the platform (online provider) is: 175a0d97d9df68559d82
- The certificate issued by the platform (online provider) has the number: 0008909
Results:
Results that may be returned are:
Format: JSON
{ “status”: “1”, “message”: “Attendance submitted successfully”, }
Results and their meanings:
| Parameter |
Type |
Description |
| status |
int |
A digit code specifies a particular response message |
| message |
string |
The interpretation of the status code |
Responses and their interpretations
| Status |
Message |
Meaning |
| 1 |
Attendance submitted successfully |
The transaction was successful |
| 0 |
Failed. Make sure attendance for this topic has not been already submitted for this practitioner |
This may happen if this attendance has been submitted already or the cpd id is not correct |
| -1 |
Failed. This topic has not been accredited to your platform |
This may happen if you try to submit attendance for a topic that was not approved to be ran on your platform |
| -2 |
Authentication failed. Invalid authentication key |
This may happen if you provided an incorrect authentication key |
| -3 |
The registration number is invalid |
This may happen if the pharmacist registration number provided is not correct |
| -4 |
Missing fields error. Make sure you provide the registration number, certificate number, cpd_id, platform_id, and your authentication key |
This may happen if you leave any of the parameters blank |
