EAHP represents over 29,000 hospital pharmacists across 36 member countries. EAHP represents and develops the hospital pharmacy profession within Europe in order to ensure the continuous improvement of care and outcomes for patients in the hospital setting. This is achieved through science, research, education, practice, as well as sharing best-practice and responsibility with other healthcare professionals.
The EAHP Board, elected for three-year terms, oversees the association’s activities. Comprising directors responsible for core functions, it meets regularly to implement strategic goals. Supported by EAHP staff, the Board controls finances, coordinates congress organization, and ensures compliance with statutes and codes of conduct.
The EAHP staff supports the Board in executing EAHP’s mission. The Staff assists in financial management, events organisations, policy activities and all EAHP projects. The EAHP staff works closely with EAHP’s members and ensures the effective communication all relevant stakeholders.
The first member countries were Belgium, Britain, Denmark, France, the Federal Republic of Germany and The Netherlands in 1972. EAHP has now 36 EAHP members and 2 Associate Members. EAHP is open to countries members of the Council of Europe and since 2022 to organisations representing the interests of hospital pharmacists from outside the Council of Europe (Associate Membership)
EAHP’s structure is also composed by different standing committes: EAHP Scientific Committee, EAHP Education Executive Committee and the EAHP CTF Steering Committee.
At EAHP, we are committed to transparency in our governance, ethical standards, and funding practices. This section provides open access to our foundational documents, including the EAHP Statutes, Code of Conduct, and Funding Sources. By sharing these resources, we aim to uphold accountability and foster trust with our members, partners, and the public.
Keep up with all EAHP’s events and webinars. Contact the team at info@eahp.eu should you have any questions about upcoming events or activities.
Here you can find all upcoming events organised by EAHP and by all its members and associate members. Do not hesitate to contact the events team at events@eahp.eu should you have any questions about the organisation of these events.
Hospital pharmacists conduct a critical role in the care of patients in hospitals. Learn more about what they do here and in all the pages under Hospital Pharmacy practice and Policy.
Self-Assessment
SILCC
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EAHP brings together experts from many areas of hospital pharmacy practice providing and highlighting good local sustainable practices as that can be up-scaled and shared with other countries. The EAHP Working Group on Sustainability has the aim of reducing the environmental burden of the hospital pharmacy services.
The European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP), and its 36 member country platforms are creating a Common Training Framework for the hospital pharmacy education in Europe. The goal of this project is to allow the free movement of hospital pharmacists within the European Union.
The European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) and the European Society of Clinical Pharmacy (ESCP) have collaboratively developed the Oath to Society. The Oath to Society is all encompassing and acts as a contract for excellence in providing compassionate patient care, working as part of the healthcare team and advancing the pharmacy profession, and showcasing how clinical and hospital pharmacists work every day
A day created to highlight the importance and to celebrate the work done by hospital pharmacies. This day celebrates all hospital pharmacy teams.
Catch up with EAHP’s press releases
Find all EAHP relevant publication like the EAHP Surveys, annual reports and the history books.
The European Journal of Hospital Pharmacy (EJHP) is the only official journal of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) and is committed to advancing the science, practice and profession of hospital pharmacy. As the premier communication platform for hospital pharmacists worldwide, EJHP is a major source for continuing education as well as updates on advances in the practice and standard of pharmaceutical care for patients.
When EAHP and Hospital pharmacists appear in the news.
EAHP publishes a monthly EU monitor with updates about the latest EAHP initiatives and information relevant for the hospital pharmacy profession.
Sponsor Channel
The Sponsor Channel is designed to maximise visibility and engagement, allowing sponsors to connect with the hospital pharmacy community and partners in a dynamic and interactive environment. From product demonstrations to networking sessions, the Sponsor Channel offers a range of opportunities for sponsors to showcase their offerings and generate leads in the new EAHP Website.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Mafalda Cavalheiro 1
Maria José Rei 1
Ana Rita Silva 1
Patrícia Batalha Silva 1
Carolina Marques 1
Miriam Capoulas 1
1- Pharmacy Department, Hospital da Luz Lisboa, Portugal
Low serum Infliximab are associated with lost of response and development of immunogenicity. Moreover, therapeutic levels without the control of the inflammatory activity may inform about the necessity of changing the therapeutic class. While monitoring serum levels in the absence of response is already well established, the proactive monitoring of serum levels at defined timings during the induction and maintenance phases of therapy is beginning to be recommended by several leading organizations.
Establishment of a protocol for proactive serum monitoring of Infliximab in inflammatory bowel disease, to guide the interpretation of serum levels, optimize dosage and therapeutic response.
Implementation took place in several stages. 1) Theoretical and practical training culminating in the discussion and drafting of a technical guideline including a monitoring protocol with the Gastroenterology team. 2) Organization of the sample collection and analysis circuit. The analytical technique is a rapid test that allows the detection of infliximab levels and anti-infliximab antibodies. 3) Finally, dosage optimization (maintenance of the reference dosage or intensification – shortening the administration interval or increasing the dose) is carried out with the support of population pharmacokinetic models using the DoseMeRx software, interpreted in the context of the overall response assessment in conjunction with the clinical team. The main limitation identified had to do with awareness of the medical team to rational dosage adjustments based on the population model.
15 patients were included with a median age of 33 years; 11 of these were diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis and 4 with Crohn’s Disease. A total of 24 tests were carried out (21 with a proactive strategy and three with a reactive strategy). Of the doses taken at week 6, 60% were below the reference range considered. The dosage regimen was intensified in 64% of the recommendations. Of the patients analyzed, 76% maintained their response, although the duration of treatment was less than a year in most cases.
The strategy of proactive monitoring and dose intensification may have contributed to achieving and maintaining the response to treatment with Infliximab, but the small number of patients and the duration of the analysis call for further analysis.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Viviana Andrea Pinzon Garcia, Paula Camila Murcia Jaramillo, Reinaldo Grueso Angulo
In 2018, concerned with the opioid crisis in USA, the pharmacy and therapeutic committee began to work on safer opioid use; an initial diagnosis showed an increase in the use of in hospital opioids and a lack of protocol for the disposal of the resultant remnants. Standard single-dose syringes (SSDS) were devised to avoid remnants, subsequently noticing that the strategies to be used should involve the whole medication order cycle (MOC). This gave rise to the OSP, which involves physician’s pain management and prescribing practices, pharmacy preparing and dispensing process, nurse’s custody, administration and disposing protocols.
An Opioid Stewardship Programme (OSP) led by a multidisciplinary team: scientific direction, pharmacy and pain clinic, was implemented to ensure adequate and safe opioid prescription, dispensation, administration and disposing practices in San Ignacio University Hospital (HUSI), a tertiary level hospital in Bogota, Colombia.
Institutional pain practice guidelines were assessed, unifying the titration doses with SSDS and developing disposal protocols in which care staff is constantly being trained ever since. To trace the impact of the OSP, indicators for IV opioid consumption, SSDS prescription, naloxone use and guideline adherence were created.
Main obstacles on SSDS: <10% prescribing adherence, availability failures and dose expiration. In response, the whole ampoule prescription was narrowed to only pain specialists to face SSDS expiration costs and avoid shortage.
SSDS prescription proportion above 70% by July 2022, decreased milligram morphine equivalent (MME) consumption per hospital discharge (January 2019: 37, January 2020: 47, January 2021 (COVID 2nd surge): 39, January 2022: 25, July 2022 (COVID 3rd surge):16) and monthly costs decrease in 1997 USD, between 2019 and 2022.
An opioid shortage during the COVID surges, deepened in Colombia due to a hydromorphone recall, was avoided.
The OSP initiative could be replied in healthcare institutions considering our achievements. To keep working in a safer opioid MOC, our OSP has formulated new strategies with an active role of pharmacists, pain specialists and nurses oriented to: remnants disposal protocol, prescribing policies, medication error detection and healthcare staff and patient education.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Fernando Fuertes
Monitoring of patients on immunomodulators increases the workload of consultants in gastroenterology outpatient clinics. Pharmacist-led monitoring clinics reduces the number of patients who had to discontinue treatment due to myelosuppression, optimises dosage by therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM), and increases adherence to blood monitoring.
A creation of a outpatient pharmacist-led Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) clinic to monitor and optimised immunomodulators and biologic therapy. The role of the specialist pharmacist has added value and clinical oversight to the care of IBD patients as treatment with biologic therapy has become more prevalent. In addition, the pharmacist routinely participate in IBD multidisciplinary team meetings to help with decision-making and treatment optimisation.
The Department of Gastroenterology at Barnsley Hospital, developed the twin roles of a Specialist Gastroenterology Pharmacist and an IBD Specialist Nurse/Non-medical endoscopist in 2012 to augment IBD care. Both roles require accreditation for independent prescribing. The pharmacist has responsibility for therapeutic drug monitoring, the prescription of biologic treatment following induction and immunosuppressants, participate at MDT, patient support and patient education. The nurse oversees the clinical and endoscopic surveillance of patients including the running of the IBD telephone helpline service
Robust clinical, biochemical and endoscopic surveillance is crucial for the delivery of effective treatments and quality of care in IBD. Telemedicine and virtual clinics have become part of our mainstream clinical practice to allow our IBD patients rapid access to healthcare services, pathway-driven treatment decision-making processes and endoscopy. IBD specialist Nurse and pharmacist clinics allow efficient management of the Gastroenterology workload and show extremely high levels of patient acceptability and satisfaction.
IBD is a life-long condition associated with considerable ongoing morbidity. Patient’s social and psychological wellbeing can be affected if the disease is poorly controlled. It is proven the specialist role of the pharmacist adds value to the gastroenterology teams and improves patient’s care. However, there is a need to standardise the specialist IBD pharmacist like in others specialities such as haemato-oncologist pharmacist or anticoagulation pharmacist. A Continuous Professional Development (CPD) course has been launched in partnership with the School of Pharmacy at the University of Bradford (United Kingdom) to initiate this goal. Further recognition and awareness of the role is required with our profession to achieve the goal and improve patients’ quality of care.
