The 16th annual International Forum for Quality and Safety in Healthcare will take place 5-8 April, 2011 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. More information can be found at http://internationalforum.bmj.com/2011-forum. The conference focusses on new infrastructures being developed in quality improvement. The conference has a very (much too!) early deadline for abstract submission: 24 September 2010.

The International Conference for Improving Use of Medicines (ICIUM) will be held in Alexandria, Egypt from April 10-14, 2011. This will be an ideal opportunity to present your work on a global platform. There are specific streams on access to medicines, as well as medicines policy, regulation and governance.
Information about the conference streams and abstracts can be found here here: http://www.inrud.org/ICIUM/Call-for-Abstracts.cfm and the guidelines for abstracts are at: http://www.inrud.org/ICIUM/Abstract-Submission.cfm.

The next PCNE working conference will be held in Manchester, at the ‘Chancellors’,  from 23-26 March 2011. More information will follow soon.
Do not forget to block these dates in your diary/agenda!!!!!

This symposium, now in its 15th year, is a major event in research on the clinical and economic consequences and origins of patient non-adherence to prescribed drug dosing regimens.
ESPACOMP has planned 7 sessions for 2010:
        * What's new in direct measurement of adherence;
        * Use of electronic monitoring of drug intake to promote adherence;
        * Use of e-health and telemedicine to improve adherence;
        * The payers perspective of electronic monitoring of drug intake;
        * Legal aspects of non-adherence;
        * Role of adherence in pre- and post-registration studies;
        * Evolution of terminology and taxonomy of adherence in English and the other languages, and medical practices.
At this stage of the meeting planning, we welcome contributions from anyone wishing to present their latest adherence-related work at ESPACOMP 2010. Abstract submission deadline is May 15th, 2010.
As usual, the program, abstract submission forms, and all the latest information on ESPACOMP 2010 can be found on our ESCPACOMP site (http://www.espacomp.eu), which will be updated continuously in the build-up to the meeting.

On the 2nd of November 2009, PCNE organised a meeting on Drug-related problems and medication errors in Geneva, Switzerland. Three major topics were discussed

    * Is the definition of a Drug-related problem still up-to-date? What is the relation with medication errors? What are pharmaceutical care issues?
    * Is the newly proposed V6.0 the answer to the challenges that were often faced with the V 5.1 of the PCNE-DRP classification?
    * How to validate a DRP-classification?

A report about this meeting can be found at the PCNE home page: http://www.pcne.org, by clicking on the appropriate link at the left side of the screen.

The newest version of the PCNE Drug-related problem classification (V6.2) is now available. Please note that this new version is not fully compatible anymore with the previous versions. The old and new version can both be found at www.pcne.org by clicking the appropriate link in the menu on the left.
Please contact the PCNE secretariat info@pcne.org if you want to use, translate or validate the classification.

The possibilities to perform a retrospective medication review are largely dependent on the setting, the available expertise and the available information. It seems that especially the available information controls the depth of the review. Therefore PCNE proposes following three categories:

I. The simple medication review
The simple medication review is based on the medication history in the pharmacy. When doing a review based on medication history only, one can detect drug-drug interactions, some side-effects, unusual dosages and some adherence issues?

II. The Intermediate medication review
The intermediate review is based on medication history and 'life' patient information. Under such cicumstances, the professional could find drug-drug interactions, some side-effects, unusual dosages adherence issues, drug-food interactions, effectiveness issues, side effects, and possible problems with OTC medications.


III. The advanced medication review
An advanced medication review is based on medication history, patient information and clinical information. One can identify the wides array of potential and real drug-related problems, such as drug-drug interactions, some side-effects, unusual dosages adherence issues, drug-food interactions, effectiveness issues, side effects,possible problems with OTC medications plus indications related problems such as indication without a drug and drugs without indication. There would also be a possibly to identify also dosage issues based on laboratory data, antibiotic appropriateness, adherence to clinical guidelines & formularies etc..

More on this categorisation can be found at the website of the 2009 PCNE working symposium at http://pcne.vanmilconsult.nl/wc2009/.

From 21-23 October 2010, the annual ESCP symposium will be held together with the French SFPC. The title of the Symposium is: Clinical Pharmacy at the front line of innovation.
This 39th ESCP Symposium will be held in Lyon, France. It will focus on the front-line innovations in clinical pharmacy and pharmaceutical care. The cutting edge innovations in the fields of cardiology, neurology and oncology will be discussed. There will be workshops, posters and late-breaker sessions.
Lyon is an attractive city, with an excellent culinary reputation. So, enough reasons to come to Lyon in October 2010. For more information see the conference website.

The Faculty of Pharmacy and the University of Lisbon are delighted to host the 16th ISPW, from Monday 23rd to Thursday 26th August, 2010.
The 16th ISPW aims to bring together scholars around the world that share a common passion of improving pharmacy practice and related health outcomes. This Workshop will set a special emphasis on the role of communication and information, as ubiquitous and directly engaged with health care practitioners and quality of health care.
A great and committed effort was made in developing the Programme, promising an excellent opportunity for the exchange of ideas and knowledge, meet up with old friends, make new friends, and strengthen the social pharmacy network. Plenary Key Speakers will provide us with different perspectives on communication and information issues pertaining pharmacy practice and medicines use. As well as with the usual series of Workshops which form the backbone of the meeting (including novice researchers), the 16th ISPW will run a special series of Symposiums aimed as forums of debate. The Programme will also offer the opportunity for a great number of Oral Communications and Poster Presentations. We therefore believe you will find it rewarding and stimulating.
Go to http://www.ff.ul.pt/16ispw/ for more information on the conference and abstract submission.