Record Numbers of Hospital Pharmacists Attend EAHP Congress 2012 In Milan

On the occasion of its 40th Anniversary, the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) has recently recorded the highest number of attendees at its annual Congress so far. In total 3,700 conference participants registered and attended over the three day event in Milan between 21st and 23rd March, listening to keynote speeches, taking part in seminars, and enjoying associated sponsor events.

The theme of the Congress was “Special patient groups – hospital pharmacists creating standards for care” with the 3 keynote speakers addressing the topics of: limits of treatment; the management of risk and life safety; and, drug safety in geriatric patients.

On Wednesday 21 March Professor Umberto Veronesi, the internationally recognised Italian surgeon and oncologist, opened the Congress with an address on the modern advances being made in many areas of treatment such as stem cell research, the move towards multi-disciplinary models of health provision, and nanotechnology. He then outlined some of the many potential future roles of pharmacists as in palliative care, pain management and the use of opiods, clinical trials and clinical decision-making.

On Thursday 22 March Professor Michael Faber of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich gave a presentation to the Congress on risk informed decision making from the perspective of an engineer. Closing the Congress, Professor Petra Thuermann, a Clinical Pharmacologist from North Rhine-Westphalia, explored the issue of drug safety in relation to the treatment of elderly patients.

Elsewhere at the Congress, amongst the many other events, the preliminary results of the EAHP pan-European survey of current hospital pharmacy practicewere presented, a lively panel discussion was held on the future of hospital-based small scale production and an educational seminar took place on the involvement of the hospital pharmacist in chronic infections.

Of the 470 accepted and exhibited abstracts at the conference, the prize winners were:

1st place: Author: Mr. Jesse Swen

Affiliation: LUMC, Clinical Pharmacy & Toxicology, Leiden, The Netherlands

Poster Title: Genetic risk factors for type 2 diabetes mellitus and response to sulfonylurea treatment

2nd place: Author: Dr. Claudia Mildner

Affiliation: University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Pharmacy, Mainz, Germany

Poster Title: Closing the gap – improving patient safety with better drug information

During the closing ceremony of the congress, Dr. Roberto Frontini, President of the EAHP, said:

“This year’s Congress in Milan was a very fitting event to mark EAHP’s 40th anniversary. The record level of participation by hospital pharmacists, not only from Europe, but many other countries beyond, shows just how much we have been able to build on the foundations laid by predecessors all those years ago. But the Association will never rest on its laurels and even now work is well progressed for our 2013 Congress in Paris. This will address the issue of seamless care and how to achieve multi-professional approaches within health services. I’m looking forward to it already!”

Jennie De Greef, Chief Operating Officer of the EAHP and Congress organiser, said:

“The EAHP congress and educational programmes in general have seen a vast increase in participation over the last 4 years and on behalf of EAHP, I thank the scientific committee and scientific advisory group for their dedication in creating the content for all of EAHP’s education programmes. In addition, we must thank all sponsors for their continued support with special acknowledgement to EAHP Platinum Partner, Amgen and Gold Partner, Bayer. We are also very enthusiastic about EAHP’s new Synergy programme which will launch during the Paris congress to take place from 13-15 March 2013.”

ENDS

For further information please contact Richard Price (Tel.: +32 (0)2/741.68.35 Email: po@eahp.eu) or Sandra Teixera (Tel.: +32 (0)2/741.68.27 Email: eb@eahp.eu)

NOTES TO EDITORS:

1. The European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) is a working community of national associations of hospital pharmacists. Its membership includes representatives of national hospital pharmacy associations in almost all the European Union (EU) member states, in addition to Switzerland, Norway, Serbia, Turkey, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia (FYROM) and Bosnia Herzegovina. Membership is increasing each year and, at present, EAHP represents the interest of over 21,000 hospital pharmacists in 31 countries all over Europe. www.eahp.eu

2. The 18thAnnual Congress of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists will be held in Paris13-15 March 2013. More information here

Record Numbers of Hospital Pharmacists Attend EAHP Congress 2012 In Milan

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