You can subscribe to receive the EAHP EU Monitor by email here [1]. [1]
On the occasion of World Rare Disease Day (28 February), Dr Roberto Frontini, President of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP), has added his voice to calls for all European countries to design and implement national rare disease plans.
More details here [2].
The European Parliament has voted, by large majority, to approve the European Commission’s ‘Health Programme 2014-2020’. The 446m euro programme will help fund the uptake of innovative solutions to improve healthcare provision, and the pooling of resources and know-how between countries to address common problems in the area of healthcare.
The programme follows two previous such initiatives (2003-2007; 2008-2013) with a greater focus in the new programme on how health can contribute to economic growth, including employment, innovation and sustainability. The programme aims to support EU countries reform their health systems by promoting actions on the prevention of chronic and major diseases and the uptake of innovation in health such as Health Technology Assessment and eHealth.
Specifically, the funding pool will be used to fund:
In most cases, the grants will contribute 60% of the costs of the action/project.
The first call for proposals under the terms of the new programme is expected in Apri/early May 2014.
More information on the vote here [3].
More information about the programme here [4].
The European Commission (DG Education) has opened a consultation on the construction of a “European Area of Skills and Qualifications”. Closing on 15 April 2014, it aims to collect the views of stakeholders and individuals on the problems faced by learners and workers with regard to the transparency and recognition of their skills and qualifications when moving within and between EU Member States.
The consultation document begins with acknowledgement that:
Reflecting future trends, the EU is seeking to develop new policies and instruments that should:
The consultation responses will be used to support development of potential Commission proposals for revising EU instruments for the transparency and recognition of skills and qualifications, possibly to be published in early 2015.
More information about the consultation here [5].
More than 65 orphan drugs are authorized within all EU Member States for the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of rare diseases. Beyond dispensing, orphan drugs pose questions for hospital pharmacies, including cost and reimbursement, adherence to medication, off-label and unlicensed use, compounding procedures, pharmacovigilance and home treatment.
A special workshop at the 19th Congress of the EAHP in Barcelona will examine these issues as well as innovative aspects in the diagnosis and treatment of rare disease patients such as advanced therapy medicinal products, hospital exemptions, direct-to-consumer genetic testing, public private partnership in drug development, cross border healthcare and European tender operations.
The seminar takes place twice during the Congress week, from Wednesday, 26 March 2014 (4:15pm to 5:45pm) and Thursday, 27 March 2014 (11.45 am to 13:15am) in Room 125.
More details here [6].
The April 2014 edition of the European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy is now available online!
It includes a special report from Swedish pharmacist Tommy Eriksson on the tools of evidence based medicine and a report of an EAHP-Europharm Forum survey on inter-sector communication between hospital and community pharmacists across Europe.
Linda Dodds looks at optimising pharmacy input to medicines reconciliation at admission into hospital and Ed Wiltink provides a systematic review of anticoagulant therapy.
The full text of the article is available here [7].
Links
[1] http://www.eahp.eu/newsletter/subscribe
[2] http://www.eahp.eu/press-room/eahp-rare-disease-day-all-european-countries-should-have-rare-disease-plan
[3] http://www.euractiv.com/health/parliament-adopts-third-health-p-news-533785?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=EurActivRSS
[4] http://ec.europa.eu/health/programme/policy/index_en.htm
[5] http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/more_info/consultations/skills_en.htm
[6] http://www.eahp.eu/congresses/goals/sr1-re-engineering-drug-preparation
[7] http://ejhp.bmj.com/content/early/2014/02/14/ejhpharm-2013-000406.full