PCNE Working group on Guidelines and Indicators

For evidence-based recommendations to implement pharmaceutical care in practice, professional guidelines are needed. To facilitate the definition and measurement in pharmaceutical care, in 2020 the PCNE Working Group (WG) “Guidelines and Indicators” was set up. The WG held several workshops at the PCNE conferences in Egmond aan Zee (2020), Lisbon (2022), Hillerød (2023), Basel (2024), and Innsbruck (2025).

We recommend reading the WG paper on PCNE quality indicators classification:

Kenji Fujita, Kjell H Halvorsen, Noriko Sato, Janja Jazbar, Pilar Modamio, Isabel Waltering, Isabelle De Wulf, Tommy Westerlund, Timothy F Chen, Martina Teichert. Pharmaceutical Care Network Europe definition of quality indicators for pharmaceutical care: a systematic literature review and international consensus development; Int J Clin Pharm. 2024 Feb;46(1):70-79. Available from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11096-023-01631-8.

WG planned activities:

• Publication on the availability of professional guidelines on pharmaceutical diabetes care in different countries
• Development of quality indicators to measure pharmaceutical care according to the Handbook of Diabetes Care as published by the Federation Internationale Pharmaceutique
• PCNE study across 20 different countries to validate a set of quality indicators for diabetes care in community pharmacy

Interested in this work? Please contact

• Dr. Martina Teichert (The Netherlands): m.teichert@knmp.nl                 
• Dr. Kjell H. Halvorsen (Norway): kjell.h.halvorsen@uit.no                
• Dr. Kenji Fujita (Australia/Japan): kenji.fujita@sydney.edu.au

The PCNE Working group “Adherence” successfully finalised the publication of the new 15-STARS adherence questionnaire that was developed during and after PCNE working conferences. The quationnaie focuses on patients’ modifiable determinants and can be used in daily practice.

Open access is provided in the journal RSAP: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38042709/

The European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & HealthCare (EDQM), established a multidisciplinary group to draft a statement of principles and recommendations concerning pharmaceutical care. On 11 March 2020, the resolution was adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. It explains pharmaceutical care and illustrates pharmacists’ contribution to medicine optimisation in different care settings.

This recent paper by Martin C. Henman, Silvia Ravera and Francois-Xavier Lery aims to describe the resolution and to illustrate the concept of pharmaceutical care, its relevance to health services and potential contribution to health policy.

See full text: Healthcare 2024,12, 232.

The updated PCNE-DRP classification V9.1 and amended cases went into international validation round 2. 158 pharmacists from 12 countries completed the survey. The report of the second validation round can be found here and is publicly available. The executive summary is also available. These issues were discussed with pharmaceutical care experts during the online Working Conference 2021.

This lecture is dedicated to the memory of our colleague and friend, whose lifelong dedication on fostering pharmaceutical care research was such an inspiration for many of us. The spirit of Dr. Foppe van Mil should be kept alive.

The first Foppe van Mil Memorial Lecture 2022 by Prof. Filipa da Costa (Portugal) on Friday 11 February introduced the spirit of Foppe and presented testimonials by important friends of Foppa van Mil: Charles Hepler, Yolande Hanssens, Kurt Hersberger, Tommy Westerlund, Marina Odalivic, Martin Henman, Martin Schulz, Catherine Duggan, James McElnay. This very emotional introduction was followed by a lecture by Joao Aguiar as a younger PhD who was mentored by Prof. Filipa da Costa.

The whole lecture together with the testimonials has been recorded. On request, access to the MP4 file can be provided.

The second Foppe van Mil Memorial Lecture 2023 by Prof. Birthe Sondergaard (Denmark) held in the opening session of the 13th PCNE Working Conference in Hilleroed was entitled: Pharmacies’new roles in pharmaceutical care: bridging research and practice–the Danish case.

The third Foppe van Mil Memorial Lecture 2024 by Prof. Marin Schulz (Germany) held during 9th PCNE Working Symposium 2024 at University of Basel, Switzerland was entitled:Pharmacist-led/Pharmaceutical Care to Improve Outcomes of Patients With Cardiovascular Diseases   

The forth Foppe van Mil Memorial Lecture 2025 was held during the opening session of the 14th Working Conference in Innsbruck 2025 by Prof. Kurt Hersberger as senior lecturere together with the PhD student Anna Bollinger, both from University of Basel Switzerland.The lectures were entitled:EVOLUTION OF PHARMACEUTICAL CARE & RESEARCH and GENOTYPING PATIENTS WITH ADVERSE DRUG REACTION OR THERAPY FAILURE: DATABASE ANALYSIS OF A PHARMACOGENETIC CASE SERIES.