A Hospital Pharmacist is elected Co-Chair for Users to IHE-Europe

A hospital pharmacist who played a key role in the creation of the Pharmacy domain for Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE), Jacqueline Surugue was elected the Co Chair for Users of IHE Europe Steering Committee in June. www.ihe-europe.net

Since 2007, Jacqueline Surugue has served on the Steering Committee of IHE, representing the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP).

Completing her term as President of EAHP in June, Jacqueline Surugue takes up her duties as IHE-Europe co-chair, saying, “I will bring my enthusiasm to collaborate with co Chairs and members and my support in establishing IHE Europe as a recognized stakeholder on the European level and a strong partner within IHE international with the aim of a coherent interoperability of health information systems”.

IHE-Europe is represented by an executive board with Co-Chairs and two past Co-Chairs of the European IHE Committee, two representing the vendors, two representing the users of IT systems in health care.

As Co-Chair for Users, Jacqueline Surugue joins Peter Kuenecke, the elected Co-Chair for Vendors, in jointly-directing the activities and operations of the not-for profit organization IHE-Europe aisbl.

Hospitals, health authorities and medical societies participate in the activities of IHE-Europe which is also supported by many sponsoring organisations and companies. The organization was initiated jointly by the European Association of Radiology (EAR) and the European Coordination Committee of the Radiological, Electromedical and Medical IT Industries (COCIR).

Jacqueline Surugue is chief of the Pharmacy Department for the 1,200-bed Centre Hospitalier Georges Renon (Niort) in the Poitou Charentes region of France. She has a broad experience on European level in her role as the president of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists, a federation of 29 countries from Europe representing 22,000 hospital pharmacists.

She was elected vice president of the Federation Internationale Pharmaceutique (FIP) Hospital Section in 2006 and is an elected member of the National Council of the French Order of Pharmacists.

Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise (IHE) International is an organization that enables users and developers of information technology for healthcare to achieve interoperability of systems through the precise definition of healthcare tasks, the specification of standards-based communication between systems required to support those tasks and the testing of systems to determine that they conform to the specifications. The work is managed by IHE committees and sponsored by various national and international bodies, as described in the IHE Principles of Governance, available at www.ihe.net/governance/.

Sources

http://www.ihe-europe.net/

http://www.ihe-europe.net/content/new_cochair.htm

38th European Symposium on Clinical Pharmacy

In 2009, the European Society of Clinical Pharmacy celebrates its 30th anniversary.

ESCP was indeed founded in Lyon in 1979 by clinical practitioners, researchers and educators from various countries across Europe. After 30 years of continuous development, the value of clinical pharmacy is now recognized and we anticipate a bright future. Within an increasingly complex environment, health professionals must coordinate their actions and learn how to use new technologies to maximize efficiency. Such challenges and pressure on performance should not divert us from our essential purpose: Patient Care.

Scientific Programme

Click here to download the Preliminary Programme

The scientific programme includes keynote lectures, invited lectures, oral free communications, scientific and industry-supported symposia, working group meetings, moderated poster presentations and pre-congress educational courses. The official Symposium language is English. No simultaneous translation will be available.

Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Evening Opening Lecture: Pricing of Drugs & Transparency in Health Care, Richard Laing, WHO

Wednesday, 4 November 2009
Plenary sessions: APPROACHES TO INTERDISCIPLINARY CARE
Plenary 1A: Interdisciplinary Cooperation
Plenary 1B: Interdisciplinary Cooperation in Drug & Therapeutic Committees
Plenary 1C: Interdisciplinary Cooperation in Community Pharmacy

Thursday, 5 November 2009
Plenary session: PATIENT ORIENTED CARE
Plenary 2: Talking to Patients about Pharmacotherapy
Pharmacotherapy update 1: New Developments in Anticoagulant Therapy

Friday, 6 November 2009
Plenary session: TECHNOLOGY AND PATIENT CARE
Plenary 3: Integrating Technology in Patient Care
Pharmacotherapy update 2: Biosimilars

All afternoon parallel sessions are scheduled including interactive workshops, oral communications and poster discussion fora. Masterclasses and workshops will be announced in the Provisional Programme and on this website.

Important Dates and Deadlines
Registration opening: 01 April 2009
Abstract Submission opening: 01 May 2009
Abstract Submission deadline extended to: 20 July 2009, Midnight CET
Early Registration deadline: 31 July 2009
Notifications to Abstract Submitters: 14 Sept 2009
Registration Deadline for Abstract presenters: 29 Sept 2009
Register before 31 July 2009 in order to benefit from the low early-bird rates!


Sources

http://www.escpweb.org/site/cms/
http://www.escp-gsasa2009.org/

Common European Drug Database (CEDD) project

The Common European Drug Database (CEDD) project is an initiative of the National Health Insurance Fund Administration of Hungary to make prices of pharmaceuticals easily available for the public of Europe.

The present website is a pilot version with the contribution of the:

• Irish Health Service Executive,
• Finnish Ministry of Social Affaires and Health,
• Slovenian Health Insurance Institute,
• Slovakian Ministry of Health,
• Department of Pharmacy under the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Lithuania,
• Polish Ministry of Health,
• Norwegian Medicines Agency,
• Main Association of Austrian Social Security Institutions and
• State Institute of Drug Control of the Czech Republic

The developers hope that this initiative will be shortly extended to all Member States of the European Union. Comprehensive and updated price information could result in a more competitive, common European pharmaceutical market, which would mean a great health benefit for European citizens and stimulation to European innovation.

In the present version of the website you can search and compare the prices of Austrian, Czech, Finnish, Hungarian, Irish, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Slovenian and Slovakian pharmaceuticals according to product names or ATC codes.


Source

http://cedd.oep.hu/drugs.tib?s=drug-art&f=ceddart1&id=l8xakdcq3osro9bz&portallang=en

Tony West received the 2009 Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists (GHP) gold medal

Tony West received the 2009 Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists (GHP) gold medal in recognition of his sustained contribution to hospital pharmacy at national level in UK.

Tony West is chief pharmacist and clinical director, Pharmacy and Medicines Management, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, London.

The award was presented at the Annual National Joint GHP/UKCPA conference by Guild President Richard Cattell.

Tony is a past president of the Guild and is currently a member of the board of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP), where he serves as director of professional development.


Dear Tony congratulations from the European Hospital Pharmacy Blog ;)

Source

Pharmacy Europe

War on hospital bugs

The European Parliament adopted a report backing measures designed to reduce the millions of infections picked up by patients in hospitals each year. The recruitment of specialised nurses, better education, support for research and better information for patients are among the measures proposed.

Patient safety is of increasing concern in healthcare systems everywhere. The most common problems are healthcare associated infections, medication-related events and complications during or after operations. Many such problems could be avoided fairly easily.

To help achieve this aim, MEPs are being asked to approve with amendments, under the consultation procedure, a draft Council recommendation on patient safety, including the prevention and control of healthcare associated infections. The report on this subject was drafted by Amalia Sartori (EPP-ED, IT) and adopted with 521 votes in favour, 6 against and 5 abstentions.

MEPs call for a 20% improvement by 2015

The Council recommendation calls for national programmes and policies on patient safety, better information to patients, improved reporting on "adverse events" such as infections, promotion of training for healthcare workers and knowledge sharing between Member States. MEPs believe it is important to set a reduction target for Member States to meet, so the amendments include a goal of a 20% reduction by 2015, or 900,000 cases a year. Commission studies indicate that such a reduction is achievable.

Millions affected each year

Adverse events occur in between 8% and 12% of patients admitted to EU hospitals, according to Commission statistics. This amounts to 6.7 to 15 million hospital inpatients.

In addition, some 37 million primary care patients a year suffer adverse effects linked directly to the treatment they have received. Among the most common are infections contracted in hospitals and other points of care. On average, these occur in one hospital patient in 20, giving an annual total of 4.1 million patients.

Even more worryingly, nosocomial infections (those resulting from treatment in a hospital or a healthcare service unit, but secondary to the patient's original condition) kill approximately 37,000 people every year. They are among the most frequent and destructive causes of unintended harm.

Factors that help trigger and spread nosocomial infections include viral antibiotic resistance, a high bed occupancy rate, the increase in patient transfers, an inadequate staff to patient ratio, a failure to pay proper heed to hand hygiene and various other practices serving to prevent infections, incorrect use of medical devices.

REF. : 20090422IPR54195

Contact

Constanze BECKERHOFF

• : envi-press@europarl.europa.eu
• : (32-2) 28 44302 (BXL)
• : (33-3) 881 73780 (STR)
• : (32) 498.983.550

---

Richard FREEDMAN

• : press-EN@europarl.europa.eu
• : (32-2) 28 41448 (BXL)
• : (33-3) 881 73785 (STR)
• : (+32) 498 98 32 39

Further information :

• Adopted text (click on 23 April)

Source

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/066-54196-111-04-17-911-20090422IPR54195-21-04-2009-2009-false/default_en.htm

European Association of Hospital Pharmacists in Second Life

European Association of Hospital Pharmacists -EAHP- has "Offices" in the virtual world of Second Life. Architecture and designer is our colleague "Daneel Ariantho".

You can see the machinima he produced for demonstrate the new possibilities of the brand new "Offices". The "avatar actors" are Mr "Daneel Ariantho" and Mrs "Seamless Karu" ;)




The place for the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists on Jokaydian Islands can be visited at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Jokaydia%20II/24/110/25

The Presentation of the exhibition is here: http://eahpvirtualexpo.net78.net/

The Abstract is here: http://eahpvirtualexpo.net78.net/?p=11

Keep on the good work Mr "Daneel Ariantho"

Sources

http://eahpvirtualexpo.net78.net/?p=11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOaqb7Ii0Gc

Highlights from the 14th Congress of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists in Barcelona, Spain

The 14th Paneuropean Congress of European Association of Hospital Pharmacists, organised in Barcelona 25-27 March 2009, was completed with a great success.

Here you can find some photographic snapshots from the congress (you can click onto photos to see in big size).

IHE (Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise) Pharmacy domain is created

IHE is an initiative by healthcare professionals and industry to improve the way computer systems in healthcare share information.

IHE promotes the coordinates use of established standards such as DICOM and HL7 to address specific clinical need in support of optimal patient care. Systems developed in accordance with IHE communicate with one another better, are easier to implement, and enable care providers to use information more effectively.

Simon Lettelier describes the details of the new domain in his post.

IHE (Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise) Pharmacy domain is created.

This new domain (as others IHE domains) is global.

We are searching sponsors at a worldwide level.

So, feel free to contact the IHE Pharmacy secretary ( simon [.] letellier {@} phast [.] fr ).

Please feel free too to repost, or to forward as email, this information to any organization of interest.

Details below in the IHE Pharmacy - outreach letter :


Dear All,

The pharmacy ecosystem increasingly becomes complex and requires a good interoperability among the participating systems. As a result, IHE International recently created a new global IHE Pharmacy domain with the goal to address the interoperability needs of information sharing systems and workflow systems for community pharmacists and hospital pharmacists. A description of the most important Use Cases can be found in the Pharmacy White Paper (PDF), prepared by IHE Europe.

The initial sponsors of IHE Pharmacy (EAHP, NICTIZ, Phast, GMSIh) have an European scope. In order to reflect the global nature of IHE Pharmacy, we want to outreach our membership and sponsorship to other regions and stakeholders.

According to the IHE Governance document ( here), a domain sponsor provides financial and other resources to support the activities in its domain (e.g. hosting meetings, serving as secretariat).

Hence, if your organization is interested to sponsor or participate in the new IHE Pharmacy domain, please contact the IHE Pharmacy secretary Simon Letellier ( simon [.] letellier {@} phast [.] fr ), by preference before end March 2009. Please feel free to forward this email to any organization of interest.

The creation of a new IHE domain always is an exciting experience and we hope that you want to participate in this challenging effort to improve the interoperability in the pharmacy domain.

We are available to handle further questions and look forward to hear from you.

Kind regards

Geert Claeys
On behalf of IHE Pharmacy Domain Sponsors


Source

http://simonletellier.blogspot.com/2009/03/ihe-pharmacy-domain-is-born-onward.html

Concerns expressed over Spice in European countries

At the end of 2008, concern was expressed in some European countries in relation to ‘Spice’, a herbal mixture monitored since early last year by the EMCDDA’s early-warning system (EWS) on new psychoactive substances. Spice refers to a blend of plant or herbal ingredients, including Indian Warrior and Lion's Tail (1).

A number of Spice products can be bought on the Internet, as well as in head shops and smart shops in some Member States, and are sometimes sold as a mix of air-freshening herbs. A 2008 EMCDDA study into ‘legal highs’ sold via the web, found that Spice was frequently offered as a smoking blend (i.e. 37 % online shops investigated) (2). Different blends and flavours are marketed under a variety of names including: Spice silver, Spice gold, Spice diamond, Spice tropical synergy and Spice Yucatan fire.

Some users have reported that, when smoked, Spice products can have similar effects to those produced by cannabis. This may be due to the fact that a new psychoactive substance, JWH-018 (Naphthalen-1-yl-(1-pentylindol-3-yl) methanon) (3) — a synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonist —has been identified in Germany and Austria in at least three Spice products (gold, silver and diamond). It is currently unclear whether JWH-018 is present in all Spice products or merely in some types or batches. It is also possible that other natural or synthetic psychoactive substances are being surreptitiously added to Spice products.

Responding to potential health concerns, Germany and Austria have taken legal action in recent weeks to ban or otherwise control Spice products. In Austria, a directive under the Medicines Act of 7 January 2009 declares that ‘smoking mixes containing JWH-018’ are Towards the better treatment of addiction.

Ongoing research can make a valuable prohibited from being imported or marketed in the country. And the Austrian authorities continue to review whether control is required under its Narcotic Drugs Law. In Germany, following rapid control under the national Pharmaceutical Law in 2008, an emergency regulation (in effect from 22 January), brought five cannabinoids found in Spice mixes under the Narcotic Drugs Law (one of which is JWH018).

Jennifer Hillebrand, Brendan Hughes and Roumen Sedefov

(1) Others include: Baybean, Blue Lotus, Dwarf Scullcap, Honey, Lousewort, Maconha Brava, Marsh mallow, Pink Lotus, Red Clover, Rose, Siberian Motherwort and Vanilla.
(2) Hillebrand, J., Olszewski, D., Sedefov, R. (in press) Substance Use and Misuse, Vol 45.
(3) Another chemical name is (1-pentyl-3-(1-naphthoyl) indole).

Source

http://www.emcdda.europa.eu/attachements.cfm/att_69417_EN_EMCDDA-Drugnet65.pdf

The White Paper for Hospital Pharmacy and Community Pharmacy is available for Public Comment

The White Paper for Hospital Pharmacy and Community Pharmacy is ready and is waiting for your comments. Geert Claeys, IHE Eur Pharmacy Task Force, send the following info:

The White Paper for Hospital Pharmacy and Community Pharmacy is available for Public Comment at ftp://ftp.ihe.net/International/Europe/Development/Pharmacy/White%20Paper/IHE+Eur-Pharmacy-WhitePaper-PublicComment-1.0.pdf.

The White Paper describes the main interoperability Use Cases, the related actors & sequence diagrams and gives an overview of relevant standards. The White Paper will be used as input for the development of the IHE Pharmacy Integration Profile.

The Public Comment period closes at 25 March 2009. Please use the attached template to submit your comments to secretariat@cocir.org

Kind regards

Geert Claeys

IHE Eur Pharmacy Task Force

* IHE Pharmacy White Paper - Comment Template.doc