The financial envelope of the public health programme for the period 2003-2008

The financial envelope of the public health programme for the period 2003-2008 is € 353.77 million.

According to the annual work plan the budget available for 2006 is € 55,817,661 million. This amount is divided into the "operational budget" of € 53,863,521 million, which will be used by awarding grants for projects and by issuing calls for tenders, and resources for technical and administrative assistance and support expenditure of € 1,954,140 million.

The intention is to allocate the operational budget in 2006 in a balanced way between the three objectives of the programme: health information, rapid reaction to health threats and addressing health determinants unless particular public health emergencies arise, justifying a reallocation of resources.

The Commission will implement the priorities defined in the Work Plan 2006 by awarding grants to selected projects that have been submitted under the Call for proposals 2006. The period for submitting applications ends on 19 May 2006.

Source
http://ec.europa.eu/health/ph_programme/budget/budget_en.htm

The European Union Pharmaceutical forum far from consensus

The EU high-level pharmaceutical forum still has a long way to go before tabling a consensus on the structural changes needed to improve competitiveness of the European pharmaceutical industry.


RELATED: * 'Member states want to block any change on pharmaceuticals'

The High Level Pharmaceutical Forum was established in June 2005 to examine the competitiveness of the EU's pharmaceutical industry and related public-health issues. It examines drugs pricing policies in member states to determine a balance between controlling expenditure, improving access to medicines and rewarding innovation.

The forum continues the work of the G10 Medicines Group on three issues: information to patients, relative effectiveness and pricing/reimbursement.

The High Level Pharmaceutical Forum published a progress report in its first meeting on 29 September 2006. The report describes the progress done on the three areas and gives directions for future work in the form of conclusions. None of the working groups has as yet achieved real results and much remains to be discussed before the forum is expected to deliver concrete results in June 2007.

The Information to patients working group has made the most progress since it was established in January 2006. Its work has concentrated on developing a 'model information package' on diseases using diabetes as an example, and on improving patient access to quality health information in all EU languages.

The working group on Pricing/Reimbursement (control of expenditure) is encouraged, in order to make further progress, to clarify views on the value of innovation in order to establish a sound basis for further discussion between stakeholders.

The working group on Relative effectiveness (assessing the effectiveness of medicines in comparison with other treatment options) aims to improve the degree of consensus between member states on the nature of the data required to carry out cost-effectiveness and relative effectiveness assessments and on the procedure to provide these data.

To read the whole article: http://www.euractiv.com/en/health/pharmaceutical-forum-far-consensus/article-158590?Source=RSS

Source
http://www.euractiv.com/en/health/pharmaceutical-forum-far-consensus/article-158590?Source=RSS

EAHP - EPSA Student Science Award

Beginning in 2007, EAHP will offer the Science Award to EPSA students to recognise and honour the best science research manuscript authored by undergraduate student(s).

This award recognises the student(s) for significant intellectual contributions that promise to promote the state of the art in hospital pharmacy and pharmaceutical research methods or theories.

Submission deadline: 15 November 2006

For more info, please visit EAHP http://www.eahp.eu/asp/news_detail.asp?ID=86&m=1

High-Tech Pharmacies are Safer for Patients

Using bar coding in the hospital pharmacy may help prevent dangerous prescription errors, according to a new study.

Reporting in the Sept. 19 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston compared the rates of medication dispensing errors before and after bar coding technology was implemented at the hospital pharmacy.

With the new technology, every dose of medication was affixed with a bar code, and these codes were scanned in as an additional step to ensure that the right medications were being dispensed. Without the bar coding, the pharmacists relied on visual inspections alone to make sure they were dispensing the right medication.

After implementing the bar coding technology, the rate of dispensing errors fell by 85 percent, and the rate of dispensing errors with the potential to harm patients fell by 63 percent.

The bar coding technology was most effective when it required the pharmacy staff to scan all doses of medications.

"Overall, the use of bar code scanning technology appears to have a significant impact on the rate of dispensing errors that were serious enough to potentially harm patients," lead author Eric Poon, an associate physician in the hospital's department of general medicine, said in a prepared statement.

Source

http://www.healthcentral.com/newsdetail/408/535002.html

The elderly are at risk of drug errors

The elderly are at risk of accidentally harming themselves by taking potentially lethal mixtures of medicines, an expert says.

Pharmacist Kim Munro, of Aberdeen's Robert Gordon University, found just 16% of patients were receiving help with taking their drugs. He surveyed 695 people aged 78 to 86 living in sheltered housing. The poll revealed half were taking more than five different medicines a day, with one in five taking at least 12. Some 14% of the sample were using highly toxic medicines such as warfarin. Meanwhile, anti-inflammatory and blood pressure drugs taken by more than half the people had a high risk of side effects.

The survey, presented at the British Pharmaceutical Conference in Manchester, also suggested the risk of making mistakes was increased by frequent changes in elderly people's medication routines.

Source - full article

BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5321450.stm

Patients want better access to healthcare info

There is a need for a shift to a more patient-centred approach to healthcare and, especially, more efficient communication on disease and treatment options for patients, concludes a recent study on patient-organisation members' perception on the state of healthcare. A patient-centred approach aims to integrate the needs and expectations of patients into national healthcare systems, in particular by improving patients' access to treatment and information, ensuring their participation in healthcare decision-making and involvement in policy-making.

The Perceptions of healthcare survey, done for IAPO, the global alliance representing patients of all nationalities across all disease areas, includes input from ten EU member states. The study includes an analysis of the quality of healthcare and identifies the major challenges for improvements of government health-care policies. Patient organisations agree on three needs:

• timely access to the best treatment and information;
• right to participate in decision at the individual patient level, and;
• patient involvement in policy-making.

One of the Pharmaceutical Forum's main issues is information for patients. A multi-stakeholder group is currently working on developing a future EU health information strategy. Specific working groups have discussed, since early 2006, non-statutory information, statutory information and accessibility.

The Commission 2004 communication on patient mobility highlights the need to ensure access to the right information regarding the quality and availability of health services in different member states.

Source

http://www.euractiv.com/en/health/patients-want-better-access-healthcare-info/article-157327?Source=RSS