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International Society of Oncology Pharmacy Practitioners
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Vol 18, No. 4 December 2016
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Message from the President
2016 is swiftly coming to an end and it has been a real busy year for ISOPP as we prepare for our yearly symposium to be held in Budapest in 2017. It was not long ago that we met in Santiago for our last symposium in April this year.
Last month's Staying in Touch Enews announced that registration for our 2017 Symposium in Budapest (April 26 to 29) is open. Please check out the program, which offers discussion and information on timely and important topics such as: "Can We Afford Innovation in Oncology?" and "Ethical and Legal Aspects of Physician Assisted Dying and the Pharmacist's Role". This symposiums is well worth attending and so please register as soon as possible to take advantage of the early bird registration.
Our call for Nominations Task Force members, in order to prepare the election slate for our 2017 elections, continues. Please put your name forward by emailing to me at president-elect@isopp.org. The time commitment is about two to three hours and the responsibilities include:
- Identifying possible candidates
- Contacting potential candidates and encouraging them to run for a position
- Reviewing the curriculum vitae of potential candidates and finalizing the slate of candidates for the election
Also, watch for membership renewal notices which will be sent to you via email in early January.
It will contain a personalized link saving you the step of reentering data. Instead you simply review the data that you previously provided, ensure it is up-to-date and then renew your membership. Also urge your colleagues to join ISOPP as it is only through greater membership and involvement that we can make ISOPP great.
Do enjoy the December edition of our Newsletter. It continues to keep us all connected and informed about the activities of our colleagues around the world.
I hope this year has been a great year for you and as we move along to 2017, my wishes for you are good health, successful careers and more involvement in ISOPP.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays and I wish you a prosperous and successful 2017. See you soon in Budapest!
Sincerely
Harbans
Harbans Dhillon
ISOPP President
PS If you missed reading November's Staying in Touch Enews or any other issue this year, visit the
Staying in Touch archive page
on ISOPP's website to catch up. A reminder too, that past editions of the Newsletter are also available on ISOPP's website on the
Newsletter page
.
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 Oncology Around the World
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Oncology Pharmacy Practice in India: Opportunities & Challenges
By
Himanshu J Patel, JSS University, Mysore, India
Quality Cancer care always remains a challenge in developing countries due to financial limitations, shortage of skills, limited research and diverse regulations for patient care. Cancer care in India has many challenges due to diverse patient populations, limited access to newer medicines, affordability of the patients to the existing cancer treatment, lack of medical insurance or insurance with limited benefits, limited financial support from the government, poor awareness on the importance of oncology pharmacy practice and oncology nursing care. The concept of oncology pharmacy services is in the developing stage in most of the Indian cancer hospitals. There are no residency programs available to build capacities to practice as an oncology pharmacist. No structured training courses are available for nurses who want to gain exposure in the area of cancer care and hence, most of the nurses involved in cancer care are only general practitioners and not a specialist.
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Himanshu J Patel
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JASPO 2016 Meeting Review
By
Shinya Suzuki, National Cancer Center Hospital East, Kashiwa, Japan
The Japanese Society of Pharmaceutical Oncology consists of over 2,300 hospital pharmacists, community pharmacists, and various healthcare pharmaceutical professionals who work for cancer care. The JASPO held its 4th meeting in Kagoshima on March 12-13, 2016 and the conference chair was Professor Yasuo Takeda (Department of Pharmacy, Kagoshima University). There were more than 2,000 attendees from various professional areas, including not only hospital pharmacists and community pharmacists, but also doctors, nurses, pharmacy school faculty, researchers, students, and pharmaceutical company researchers and medical representatives. The main theme of the annual conference was "Practice and Improvement of Cancer Care via Pharmacists: from Multidisciplinary Medicine to Community Healthcare Collaboration".
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Conference Chair Professor Yasuo Takeda
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Cerner Health Conference 16 (CHC16)
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By Shaun O'Connor, Eastern Health, Melbourne, Australia
The Cerner Health Conference 2016 was held in Kansas City, Missouri on November 13-17, 2016. CHC16 is a coming together of people and ideas, workflows and progress. A meeting between the worlds of IT and clinicians asking how we can work together for improved patient outcomes and experience.
There is innovation in the use of advanced filters and alerts for pharmacists to be better able to focus their attention on tasks that require their attention. Institutional priorities can be addressed using customization of this tool, with a very flexible filter system being adjusted based on medications prescribed, medical conditions or laboratory results allowing real-time monitoring of patients on the ward. The next evolution of this tool is taking shape initially as the Antimicrobial Stewardship Page (ASP) which will allow for increased interactivity and reducing the time required to deliver the same workflow. This technology will then be able to be customized for other uses.
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Clinical Oncology Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting 2016
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By Jim Siderov, Austin Health, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia
The Clinical Oncology Society of Australia (COSA) is the peak national body representing health professionals from all disciplines whose work involves the care of cancer patients. COSA provides members with the opportunity to improve cancer care in Australia through multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary collaboration. The COSA Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) is Australia's premier cancer meeting. The ASM is a multidisciplinary meeting, inviting participation from doctors, nurses, pharmacists, allied health professionals and scientists working in cancer care nationally and internationally. The 43rd ASM was held on the Gold Coast (Queensland, Australia) in partnership with the Australia & New Zealand Breast Cancer Trials Group (ANZBCTG).
The Cancer Pharmacists Group (CPG) of COSA is committed to promoting and further developing the role of the pharmacist in cancer services and is the only national multidisciplinary forum for pharmacists working in cancer services in Australia. A major goal of the CPG is to facilitate training, education and research within both pharmacy and cancer services while ensuring that pharmacists have input into key national policy documents and clinical guidelines. CPG membership is comprised of pharmacists practicing in a variety of settings including medical oncology, haematology, palliative care and chemotherapy preparation services in both public and private settings.
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Jim Siderov, ISOPP Member
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Report on SIOP Meeting, Dublin, October 2016
By John T. Wiernikowski, McMaster Children's Hospital, Hamilton, ON, Canada
I had the pleasure of attending the 48th annual International Society for Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) meeting in Dublin this past October. The meeting was the best-attended meeting of the Society to date, and from an educational and social perspective was as great success.
As a member of the Committee on Paediatric Oncology in Developing Countries (PODC) our committee met the day prior to the Meetings initiation. Excellent work continues to be done in a number of domains with working groups within the committee. The committee on adaptive treatment regimens continues to work on developing treatment regimens for various paediatric cancers that take into account the resource limitations faced by our colleagues in various parts of the world. Regimens are currently being developed for a number of brain tumours, sarcomas and lymphomas. Within the Access to Essential Medicines working group that I am a member of, we held a 90-minute brain storming session on various aspects around barriers to access. This included breakout sessions on regulatory issues, pricing structures for drugs, manufacturing and drug shortages. The core themes from these breakouts will be used to develop a ½ day pre-conference symposium at next year's meeting in Washington DC.
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SIOP 2016 Poster
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Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre Move
By Michael Moloney, Senior Pharmacist, Day Therapies, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia
In June 2016, the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre moved from its home of 30 years in East Melbourne to a new building as part of the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre (VCCC) in Parkville.
This is a purpose built health & research facility that integrates leading research with treatment and a vision to provide cancer patients with access to the very best treatment options available. The pharmacy department, considered an integral part of delivery of optimal patient care, was provided with a new pharmacy outpatient department as well as a state of the art cytotoxic compounding suite.
The cytotoxic pharmacy department in East Melbourne produced approximately 2200 chemotherapy items per month for both inpatients and same day therapy patients on a 25 chair unit. As per best practice guidelines, the cytotoxic suite performed regular quality assurance and quality improvement activities with adherence to best practice in compoundin
g. The move to VCCC presented a number of challenges. With the new Day Therapies unit containing 110 treatment chairs, the workload of the cytotoxic suite was forecast to increase substantially. This required workflow planning and staff recruitment to handle increased activity.
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Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre
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ISOPP Business and News
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ISOPP 2017 Symposium
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The XVI International Symposium will take place April 26-29, 2017 in Budapest, Hungary.
Register
by Monday, February 20, 2017
to pay less and take advantage of the early bird rates! View the registration information on the
ISOPP 2017 website
.
The confirmed plenary speakers are:
World Health Organization Geneva, Switzerland
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Clinical Outcomes Group
Bristol, United Kingdom
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Mellrákinfó Egyesület (Breast Cancer Information Society) Budapest, Hungary
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Universitätsklinikum Carl Gustav Carus
Dresden, Germany
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In case you missed the email, read the latest edition of the Staying in Touch Enews on the ISOPP website.
"Staying in Touch" is a communication from the ISOPP Secretariat to you, the member, who we serve. The purpose of the communication is to keep you informed of the work the ISOPP leadership is doing on your behalf, and complements the quarterly newsletter that you receive in March, June, September and December.
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Virtual Journal Club
Accessing JOPP is easy! Log in as a member, go to the JOPP Access page and click the Access JOPP button. You have instant access.
The thirty-third issue of the
Virtual Journal Club (VJC)
is available on the International Society of Oncology Pharmacy Practitioners (ISOPP) website. To access it, visit the
Virtual Journal Club Surveys page
or follow the
direct link
to the survey.
"Expanding the armamentarium for chronic lymphocytic leukemia: A review of novel agents in the management of chronic lymphocytic leukemia."
Marini BL, Samanas L, Perissinotti AJ. J Oncol Pharm Pract. 2016 Jun 29.
Learning Objectives:
- To identify traditional treatment approaches to chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL);
- To discover novel targets in the treatment of CLL;
- To discuss emerging therapies for the treatment of CLL ; and
- To choose appropriate strategies for managing treatment related adverse events.
"An update on current and emerging therapies for epithelial ovarian cancer: focus on poly(adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase inhibition and angiogenesis"
Clement Chung and Rosetta Lee
J Oncol Pharm Pract, first published on June 29, 2016
Learning Objectives:
- To be familiar with the general treatment options of epithelial ovarian cancer;
- To understand the mechanism of action of olaparib and the concept of synthetic lethality;
- To understand the current place of therapy for olaparib in epithelial ovarian cancer; and
- To understand the current place of therapy for bevacizumab and its adverse effects profile in epithelial ovarian cancer.
As a reminder, ISOPP's Virtual Journal Club features online articles from the Journal of Oncology Pharmacy Practice (
JOPP
). Members are encouraged to read articles and then answer a series of multiple choice questions through the
Virtual Journal Club Surveys
.
After completing the questionnaire, a certificate will be emailed to you. Although not formally accredited for continuing medical education (CME) points, participation is equal to one hour of CME activity.
Members are also encouraged to use the Member Discussion Forum to stimulate discussion about articles they have read. Your
ISOPP membership
provides many great benefits and we are hopeful you will find the Virtual Journal Club another asset to your oncology pharmacy practice.
Regards
Felice Musicco
Website Work Group Key Lead
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ISOPP's Society &
Symposium Management Office
Sea to Sky Meeting Management
is ISOPP's Society and 2016 & 2017 Symposium Management Office. If you have any questions about membership, services, ISOPP 2016, ISOPP 2017 or the Society, please contact the ISOPP Office directly as follows:
Direct: +1-778-338-4142
Fax: +1-604-984-6434
Suite 206, 201 Bewicke Avenue
North Vancouver, BC Canada V7M 3M7
www.seatoskymeetings.com
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