The ESCP 2024 Spring Workshop took place at the Faculty of Pharmacy Comenius University Bratislava, Slovakia on 25th – 26th April 2024 on “Pharmacotherapy challenges in the developing years: from conception to adolescence.” “More than 100 clinical pharmacists from all over Europe and beyond got together to share their knowledge, research and network.” The workshop had the patronage of the Ministry of Health of the Slovak Republic, and the Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy.
Over the two days, there were five plenary sessions as part of the scientific programme.
Angela Lupattelli from the University of Oslo (Norway) talked about the challenges of pharmacotherapy in pregnant and lactating women. These included how risks for drug exposure are perceived in these populations, how observational research is interpreted, and how risks are communicated. Andrea Burch from the University Hospital Zurich (Switzerland) gave us an overview of the significant changes in how drugs are processed by the body during pregnancy and after giving birth. This means keeping a close eye on things and possibly adjusting the dose or the dose interval during pregnancy to keep the desired effect and after the baby is born to avoid any unwanted side effects. Sander Borgsteede from Health Base Foundation (Netherlands) shared the development of recommendations for men who want to have children when they’re on medication that might affect their desire to have children, the actual recommendations and how they’re being put into practice in clinical pharmacy. Erik Puchoň from the National Toxicological Information Centre (Slovakia) shared his insights on the various types of intoxications due to medications, chemicals, and plants. Pharmacists are valuable health care providers who can bring their experience as first-line health care workers in pharmacy as well as be part of hospital care and poison centres teams. Matej Štuhec from the University of Maribor (Slovenia) gave a very enthusiastic talk about non-pharmacological approaches and basic pharmacology and treatment guidelines for ADHD management, as well as presenting clinical cases from his practice. The insights gave the participants a better understanding of how to manage ADHD in clinical practice.
In the four workshops, participants discussed a range of topics: therapeutic drug monitoring in pregnancy and paediatrics (Martina Hahn and Sibylle C. Roll, Germany); searching for information and assessing the risk of pharmacotherapy in pregnancy and breastfeeding (Kateřina Malá Ládová, Czechia and Anna Oleárová, Slovakia); an innovative tool for drug dosing in neonates and paediatrics – PEDeDose (Priska Vonbach, Switzerland); and clinical pharmacy in NICU using the Iatromed tool (Sonia Prot-Labarthe, Sixtine Gilliot and Héloïse Capelle, France).
A nice atmosphere of the workshop was underlined at the Welcome reception in Primate´s Palace (Primaciálny palác). We were welcomed by prof. Ján Klimas, the dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy, and given a private guided tour of the Palace, followed by a tour of the Old Town Bratislava.
A big thank you to all the plenary speakers; workshop moderators; Scientific and Organising Committees of the Spring Workshop; as well as the excellent support of the Faculty of Pharmacy Comenius University Bratislava; to our sponsors (Saladax and DoseMe); and all participants for sharing their knowledge and skills, for sharing their own work by presenting a poster/ oral communication, for networking and for being in Bratislava!
Hope to see you again at one of our future events.
Text: Anna Oleárová; Photos: ©Michal Valentin
