This PCNE Working Symposium will again be held in Egmond aan Zee in the Netherlands. All participants of the last PCNE Working Conference in 2019 were very satisfied with the venue, and those who joined us there already know that the location is close to the sea. All others now get a second chance to be with us at this unique location. So please join us again and help us to further the research in pharmaceutical care and pharmacy practice in the Netherlands in 2020.

The title of the symposium is ‘Right questions, valid answers’.  As researchers we know that a ‘smart’ research question determines the quality of the research and helps to create valid answers. As healthcare providers we know that it takes the right questions to make patients tell us their real concerns. Different methods are needed to perform good research. With plenary lectures, pre-conference courses and workshops you will get the insights needed!

Educational day

As there is an increasing demand for international educational sessions in the field of pharmaceutical care and practice research, some expert pre-conference courses will be given on Thursday including a course on writing of scientific articles.

See the tab 'Expert Courses' for more information.

Right questions, valid answers. A qualitative approach

Dr. Susanne Kaae, Denmark

The lecture will first address the variety of aims of performing qualitative research and then, based on specific examples from the area of pharmaceutical care, discuss how the ambition of ‘Right questions, valid answers’ might be performed. Secondly, the lecture will discuss some of the difficulties conducting qualitative research when coming from a primarily natural science background such as pharmacy and address how some of these challenges could be overcome in order to make qualitative research of high quality.

Short CV Dr. Kaae

Suzanne is a trained pharmacist and has a PhD in Social Pharmacy. Today engaged in Pharmacy Practice and Pharmaceutical Policy being currently involved in projects aimed at improving patient communication in community pharmacies; investigating risk communication processes (direct to health care professionals communication); exploring appropriate use of antibiotics in South-East Europe as well as future implementation of 3D printed medicines in society. Methodological expertise is in qualitative methods mainly field observations and interviews.

Right questions, valid answers. A quantitative approach

Prof. Carmel Hughes, N. Ireland

This lecture will focus on the range of quantitative methods that have relevance to pharmaceutical care research.  Asking the ‘right question’ should lead to obtaining the ‘valid answer’ which in turn should provide the evidence that is needed to support the implementation of pharmaceutical care.  The lecture will also highlight the importance of looking beyond the ‘valid answer’ by understanding the factors that might have contributed to the ‘answer’, particularly if we don’t always get the ‘answer’ that we expect.

Short CV Prof. Hughes

Carmel is Professor of Primary Care Pharmacy and Head of the School of Pharmacy at Queen’s University Belfast. Her research interests centre on prescribing in older people, intervention development and evidence-based healthcare. She is an Editor for the Effective Practice and Organisation of Care (EPOC) Cochrane review group and an Associate Editor of Pilot and Feasibility Studies. She is a former Harkness Fellow and Primary Care Research Scientist. She has been appointed to Sub-Panel 3 as part of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) exercise which will take place in 2021.

WS1 (Room 530): Valid Tools for Medication review

(Prof. Kurt Hersberger, Prof. Mitja Kos, Dr. Jacqueline Hugtenburg)

PCNE has held several workshops and symposia on Medication Review (MR). In 2017 a consensus process resulted in the PCNE definition: »Medication review is a structured evaluation of a patient‘s medicines with the aim of optimising medicines use and improving health outcomes. This entails detecting drug related problems and recommending interventions.« (See PCNE Position Paper on this site, and and the research paper in the International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy)

The process of MR consists typically of the following main steps:

• Data collection,
• Detection and evaluation of DRPs and pharmaceutical care issues,
• Agreement on interventions, the care plan development and the follow-up evaluation
• Documentation.

For the second step, detection and evaluation of drug related problems and pharmaceutical care issues, a lot of tools are available and have been used in different settings. However, with the emerging of clinical decision support systems (CDSS) the process of performing a medication review will change and new opportunities will come up.

Objectives

In this WS we will

• collect examples from different countries on the integration of CDSS in the work flow of pharmaceutical care.
• evaluate what characteristics of CDSS are most helpful in a MR and for which type of MR
• discuss research gaps and opportunities for shared research projects

Brief Workshop Report

WS2 (Room 531): Validating PCNE DRP-classification

(Dr. Nejc Horvat, Dr. Foppe van Mil, Dr. Tommy Westerlund)

It has been a number of version ago, that the PCNE-DRP classification was validated. In 2017 the cases were adapted, and in 2019, two more cases added. In the beginning of Novermber, an international validation round was started, with the new, amended, cases-set. All participants, in different countries, can upload their scores of the cases on the Internet, and we will centrally compare them. Additionally there is a questionnaire to be completed, about missing codes and the usability of the classification.

During the workshop we will look at all available scores and the questionnaire results, try to draw conclusions and discuss a path forward.

Brief Workshop Report

WS3 (Room 532): Guidelines and their valid indicators

(Dr. Martina Teichert, Dr. Kenji Fujita)

Guideline implementation and effectiveness of pharmaceutical care are measured by Quality Indicators. (QIs).  They are essential in providing transparency in quality assessment and improvement. Pharmaceutical care for diabetes patients is essential as this disease affects an increasing number of patients,. Though many countries have guidelines on pharmaceutical care for diabetes patients, at present there is no internationally measurable QI set.

During this workshop participants will

• Identify relevant domains to be defined for QI development, validation and evaluation
• Define relevant QIs for pharmaceutical care for diabetes patients
• Discuss the feasibility to measure a set of QIs for diabetes care internationally.

Brief Workshop Report

Workshop slides (Members and participants only)

WS4: Valid tools for adherence assessment

(Dr. Isabelle Arnet, Dr. Christiane Eickhof)

Medication non-adherence is a global problem and subject of thousands of publications. Methods to assess this patient behaviour are numerous, but questions remain the most simple, cheap, non-invasive and accepted way to obtain answers from individuals. In this Workshop, participants will:

• refresh the pros and cons of methods to measure medication (non-)adherence,
• define their validity in the context of pharmacy practice and pharmaceutical care,
• discuss if questionnaires represent a valid method to asses medication intake behaviour in pharmacy practice,
• develop workable questions to assess non-adherence in pharmacy practice.

Participation in Thursday's Expert Course is certainly not mandatory. In case of profound interest, a working group will be created (goals to be defined by the workshop participants).

Brief workshop report

Workflow adherence assessment scales (members and participants only)

Supporting materials (members or participants only)

Expert courses Thursday 6^th February 2020

12.00-13.00

Registration plus lunch

13.00-17.00

Expert Courses 1- 3 (Description, see tab Workshops)

17.30-18.30

Bowling!!!!!!

18.30-19.30

Dinner time

Symposium Program Friday 7^th February 2020

8.00-8.45

Registration

8.45-9.00

Opening

9.00-9.45

Right questions, valid answers. A qualitative approach

Dr. Susanne Kaae, Denmark

9.45-10.30

Right questions, valid answers. A quantitative approach

Prof. Carmel Hughes, N. Ireland

10.30-11.00

Coffee break

11.00-12.00

Poster walking tour (poster presentations in groups)

12.00-13.00

Lunch

13.00-16.00

Workshops series 1

16.00-16.15

Short Teabreak

16.15-17.45

Oral Communications

17.45-18.45

PCNE Soapbox (members only), Chair: Dr. Martina Teichert

19.00-23.00

PCNE Social event, ‘Dinner in the dunes,

 (Separate registration)

Symposium Program Saturday 8^th February 2020

7.30-8.00

Walking on the beach

8.00-9.00

Breakfast

9.00-12.00

Workshops series 2 (repeated workshops)

12.00-13.00

Closing session, incl. poster finals and awards

13.30-16.00

PCNE general Assembly

Expert course 1 (Room 530): Right questions, valid answers: A broad introduction to qualitative research

Dr. Nejc Horvat, Slovenia, and Dr. Suzanne Kaae, Denmark

Conducting a good qualitative study is not as easy as it seems. This workshop will give some general introduction to qualitative research: what is, when to use and differences to quantitative research. Then the aims and overall techniques of different qualitative methods will be introduced including: Interviews, Consensus techniques (such as focus groups) and Observational research. The workshop will include small exercises in particular in interview and observations methods in order to discuss, what are the central issues to consider, when conducting qualitative research of high quality.

Expert course 2 (Room 531): Presenting and reporting my valid answers, how to write a scientific article

Dr. J.W. Foppe van Mil, Editor-in-chief IJCP, the Netherlands. Ms. Ema Paulino, Portugal

Once a (valid) study has been conducted, it is time to inform the (scientific) community of the findings. Especially in the biomedical field, there are certain conventions for sharing the results. Writing the article is a skill that can be learned. Additionally, selection of the publishing platform is an issue, what are the suitable journals for your research, and how do they want your paper presented.

This course will help you writing better articles, with a greater likelihood of being accepted for publication.

Expert Course 3 (Room 532): Right questions, valid answers in developing questionnaires

Dr. Isabelle Arnet, Switzerland and Dr. Christiane Eickhof, Germany

Posing a question represents the most simple, cheap, non-invasive and accepted way to obtain answers from individuals. In many settings including market research, questionnaires have a predominant place. However, the usefulness of the answers highly depends on the construction of the questions and not least the answers and scales used. In this expert course, participants will learn what makes a question "right" in order to obtain a valid answer. Focus will be placed on pharmacy-relevant topics. Participants are encouraged to bring their own "product". Use the chance to get an expert feedback!

Presentation slides Questionnaire Design