EAHP represents over 30,000 hospital pharmacists across 37 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 professional
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, Germany, Italy 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
Closed SIGs
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.
The Early Career Network aims to empower early-career pharmacists by sharing opportunities, insights, and success stories from across 25 member countries.
Together, we’re building a stronger, more connected hospital pharmacy community: one story, one country, one pharmacist at a time.
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.
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.
Education and Research
Maria Agerboe Sondrup, Anette Sand Østergaard
Training of operators has previously been performed, however there was no consistent programme for continuing training in the department to secure optimal training of operators. Equally the effectivity and durability of the training was not evaluated. The aim was to establish a thorough system for continuing training focusing on ongoing confirmation of proper training as well as adaptation and optimization throughout.
A programme for continuing training of operators was designed and implemented in a clean room production department by GMP-responsible operators and academics.
A template was designed for the programme. One module takes up to 3 months.
The template is the following:
Observation:
– Trainers observe operators in a clean room
– Current technique is observed and if necessary corrected
Training material:
– Developing educational material based on SOPs
– Short videos, PowerPoint presentations etc.
Individual training:
– Operators answer handed out multiple choice questionnaire (MCQ) by themselves
Group training:
– The correct answers to the MCQ are presented by the trainers at a plenary session
– All answers are discussed
Observation:
– Trainers observe operators in a clean room
– Current technique is observed and if necessary corrected
Evaluation:
– Trainers evaluate the training in terms of improvement from the first to the second observation
– Trainers write a report that is presented to the operators
A systematic and relatively simple training programme has been implemented. This streamlines the training of operators, thereby making it easier for the trainers to introduce new subjects and ensures that all new operators are trained the same as the experienced operators. The programme also makes the training system recognizable for the operators, which gives a higher compliance.
The program has only been implemented on processes related to production in clean room, but the training method can easily be applied to subjects outside of the clean room or in other healthcare settings. To involve the operators in the process, the second observation could be delegated to other operators and not just the trainers.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Thewodros Leka
Population Health Management is about improving population health by data driven planning and delivery of proactive care to achieve maximum impact.
The aim was to Introduce ‘Making Every Contact Count’ approach in the pre-assessment unit of engaging in conversations with patients about their lifestyle and providing the tools and information they need to make meaningful changes in managing
Hypertension, Diabetes
Smoking, Consuming alcohol, high BMI
Regular physical exercise, Healthy eating schedule
Adherence to prescribed medicines
In addition, establish link with the community public health team for continuous intervention and support.
We proposed to the hospital executive management board to develop and test a novel clinical nurse and pharmacist led ‘Population Health Management clinic’ for the hospital that is grounded in connections to key stakeholders in the community, so that patients are followed up to get lifestyle change interventions to improve their illnesses and medication adherence. The board approved the funding and we established the first of its kind population health management clinic in the hospital.
Obtaining funding for the project was an obstacle.
We surveyed 1,000 patients who attended the pre-assessment unit during the year.
31% were hypertensive, 13% diabetic, 12% were smokers, 29% had anxiety/ depression, 51% drink alcohol more than recommended limit; 50% have BMI >29; 41% were not adherent in taking their regular medicines, 41% do not practice any physical exercise and 50% said they do not follow healthy eating. We presented the audit data to the hospital executive management board proposing to develop a ‘Population Health Management clinic’. The board approved the funding as they found that this is a step forward to improve the health of the population.
Since the initiation of the project, the concept of proactive health intervention and life style change approach is well established in the hospital becoming daily practice of the pre-assessment team.
Establishing Population health management clinic in surgical pre-assessment unit provides a unique ‘teachable moment’, where a patient can be encouraged by a perioperative team to make positive and lasting changes to their lifestyle and medication adherence.
Selection, Procurement and Distribution
Outi Lapatto-Reiniluoto, Suvi Sivula, Elina Ahomäki
Price has been the most prominent criteria in procurement quality being the second. Environmental aspects haven’t been assessed earlier. Differences between the pharmaceuticals’ environmental burden can be considerable and by choosing wisely we would be more sustainable.
Environmental criteria have not been used in Finland in hospital procurements earlier. We created the criteria which would be acceptable to all parties (hospitals, suppliers), would be reliably assessed, and easily copied to other hospitals.
Our tender had six questions for everyone and two more questions for antibiotics or hormones. The common questions were answered by yes / no / we do not know. Points given were 0, 1, 2. An example of the common question is: Does the company have a plan how to reduce CO2 emissions caused by itself?
Questions for antibiotics and estrogen hormones were: Company has told in which country and in which plant the API is produced and the formulation happens.
132 providers answered so far. Quality of answers varied considerably, from 0 to 12 points, mean 7 points. Questions for antibiotics created the most discrepancies: 41 providers; 15 were not able to answer these questions acceptably. The answers showed that the questions were not too difficult, these questions could be answered, and the answers can be analysed.
The criteria were very simple and assessing the answers was not difficult. Only one question was widely misunderstood. Questions were universal and can be used in other hospitals, too, which is the wish from the industry (same questions everywhere). Wide range of results showed differences between the companies. During this round we did not give any credit for the best products but in the future more responsible products should be rewarded. Antimicrobial resistance e.g., is a global problem but if the company does not know where its products are manufactured how can they look after wastewater treatment of their products.
Education and Research
Anthony Serracino Inglott, Maria Mamo, Amar Abbas, Luana Mifsud Buhagiar
Regulatory science is not some detached activity performed in secluded offices but is applied by pharmacists as an integral part of their daily work, whether thought of as regulatory intelligence or not. This initiative endeavored to offer educational intervention, for streamlining a patient-centric culture and addressing gaps, while waning concerns regarding potential conflicts arising from regulator-stakeholder interactions.
The Malta Medicines Authority (MMA), through the MMA Academy for Patient Centred Excellence and Innovation in Regulatory Sciences, implemented a course intended for collaborative synergy with professionals in patient care settings. Strengthening regulatory intelligence may provide substantial return on investment for the ultimate benefit of patients.
In April 2023, the MMA Academy completed registration as a Further and Higher Educational Institution. An accredited 3-day course, leading to an Award in Basic Regulatory Sciences (Malta/European Qualifications Framework Level 4), was launched across stakeholders. Twenty-four experts were engaged to deliver sessions on legislation, ethics, quality, information sources, digitalization, pharmacovigilance, good practices, risk, and avoiding victims of the system. Registrations were initially slow, owing possibly to the holiday season, increasing to maximal venue capacity following reminder mails and media posts. The course was delivered in September and feedback collected through a Likert scale evaluation exercise.
Thirty participants (8 from public, 22 from private entities) completed the course successfully. All respondents to the course evaluation exercise (n=24) expressed satisfaction with course content and willingness to attend further courses. Promisingly, 92% of same respondents found the information presented relevant to their practice, anticipating performance improvement. Feedback included recommendations for future initiatives, particularly on regulatory oversight of aesthetic medicine services and integration of artificial intelligence in hospital pharmacy practices. A continuous educational needs exchange is encouraged for course development tailored to respective patient care settings.
Interest was expressed by the Health Department (Ministry for Health, Malta) to support eligible candidates for participation, auguring well for enhanced prospective engagement by clinical pharmacists and colleagues in the state hospitals. This may also serve as example to other competent authorities. Going forward, the MMA Academy intends to invest in online provision to reach a wider audience through a virtual environment.
Education and Research
Tom Simpson, Kristin Michaels, Kylee Hayward, Nick Sharp-Paul
The need to establish a recognition framework that resonated with pharmacists, aligned with their career journeys, and held tangible benefits prompted the inception of ANZCAP. Recognising that existing programmes lacked broad appeal, ANZCAP aimed to redefine recognition in a way that was meaningful, inclusive, and motivated pharmacists towards continuous development.
The Australian and New Zealand College of Advanced Pharmacy (ANZCAP) represents a pioneering advancement in pharmacy recognition and career progression. Addressing the limitations of previous models that struggled to gain broad support, ANZCAP emerged as a strategic response to bridge the recognition gap within the pharmacy profession.
The development of ANZCAP commenced with the acquisition of the Advancing Practice (AP) credentialing programme by the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA). Previous efforts to engage pharmacists with the programme were reassessed, and a comprehensive review process was initiated to devise an innovative and pragmatic model of recognition. Development comprised multiple phases, including qualitative surveys, workshops, focus groups, and expert consultations. An iterative approach was adopted to refine the model, culminating in a prospective, merit-based system that recognises specialty areas and levels of practice. The focus shifted from individual competencies to broader domains within the National Competency Standards Framework for Pharmacists in Australia 2016, fostering flexibility and practicality.
ANZCAP has already recognised pharmacists at all levels – Resident, Registrar, and Consultant – through a Prior Professional Experience process. The college also extends its reach globally, welcoming international pharmacists to join its transformative community.
ANZCAP’s future involves strengthening the alignment of recognition with promotion and remuneration mechanisms, enhancing engagement among pharmacists. By seamlessly integrating learning experiences with Continuing Professional Development (CPD) activities, ANZCAP aims to foster a culture of lifelong learning and advancement. In the broader landscape, ANZCAP’s journey involves cultivating partnerships with international pharmacy associations, leveraging collective expertise, and fostering an inclusive recognition culture. The programme’s evolution will be guided by feedback, research, and a commitment to advancing pharmacy practice globally.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
NOELIA VICENTE-OLIVEROS, CARMEN PALOMAR FERNANDEZ, TERESA GRAMAGE-CARO, PAULA BURGOS BORDEL, MARÍA DEL CARMEN CALATAYUD SÁNCHEZ, SANDRA CASADO ANGULO, ANA MARTÍN ÁLVARO, MARÍA BEGOÑA RIVERA MARCOS, SONALI KARNANI KHEMLANI, MANUEL VELEZ-DIAZ-PALLARES, ANA ALVAREZ-DIAZ
Patients with moderate-severe psoriasis require systemic hospital-dispensed treatments. Hospital pharmacists look for actions to anticipate patients’ needs for achieving health outcomes and the system’s sustainability.
We stratified psoriasis patients according to the pharmaceutical care needed and established their pharmaceutical care plan. We calculated the time needed in pharmaceutical care after stratification.
An observational, prospective, cross-sectional study was conducted in a university hospital. One hundred psoriasis patients who received medication in the outpatient hospital pharmacy were randomly chosen between March-May 2022.
Capacity-Motivation-Opportunity (CMO) pharmaceutical care model (SEFH, 2018) was used to stratify patients. This model consisted of 23 variables (demographic, clinical, pharmacological, socio-sanitary, cognitive and functional). Each variable scored between 1-4, depending on patient risk. Patients were classified on three levels which determined the subsequent pharmaceutical care to be provided to each patient:
1. global score≥31 points,
2. 18-30 points and
3 ≤17 points.
Information was collected through patients’ interviews and electronic health records review.
A group of nine pharmacists were set up to adapt the CMO pharmaceutical care model to our hospital.
Total time spent in pharmaceutical care was obtained through patient visits before and after stratification. The scheduled average time for each visit was 10 minutes. The number of visits pre-stratification was the sum of all the visits scheduled for the patients, and for post-stratification was the sum of all the visits with the new CMO model (level 1 (biannual), 2 (annual), 3 (as needed).
Most patients were stratified on level 3. A pharmaceutical care plan has been designed to meet the needs of each patient.
Stratification has improved the time pharmacists have to accomplish the needs of each patient (16.3 hours/year (98 visits)). Sixty-two percent of patients had as needed visits (level 3), 36% needed annual visits (level 2) and 2% biannual (level 1). However, during pre-stratification, most the patients (70%) had every nine months visits, 18 % every 12 months, 9% every six months and 3% every three months.
We will expand the stratification to the rest of the psoriasis patients and other outpatient pathologies.
We will coordinate strategies with Social and Psychological Services, Primary care and Community pharmacy to improve pharmaceutical care.
Education and Research
Omar HANAFIA, Pierre BERTAULT-PERES, Stéphane HONORE
This internship was proposed to diversify the clinical pharmacy internship opportunities and to allow students to discover and understand paediatrics and intensive care, which are less covered in university courses. It will also be a proof of concept to develop this type of internship in other departments.
We have proposed a new clinical pharmacy internship in immersion in paediatric intensive care to 5th year students. It is a hospital internship at the interface between the medical and pharmaceutical teams, the student is responsible for establishing a statement to analyse the drug management, its evaluation and improvement.
The clinical pharmacy student is a full-time employee, fully integrated into the medical team. Their day is divided into two parts: in the morning they attend the relief, the staff and the medical visit. In the afternoon, he/she takes over the patients, compiles the main medical, clinical and biological information in order to pharmaceutically prevalidate the medical prescriptions and propose pharmaceutical interventions (PI) to the pharmacist.
Since its opening, the position has been systematically chosen by the students, in 3 years 8 students have chosen it. After a training period of 1 month with the senior pharmacist, all students were able to perform the expected readings, prevalidation and PI. More than 78% of the PIs detected by the students were validated by the senior pharmacist and accepted by the physician.
This proof of concept shows that students are supportive of this type of initiative and are able to meet the high expectations of this internship.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Andrea Bor, Nóra Gyimesi, Eszter Erika Nagy
Intervention-oriented classification systems are helpful tools to document the CPIs in a structured manner. Our aim was to develop a clinical pharmacy platform in the e-documentation system at our institution. This CPI data enables healthcare providers to track medication history, and to systematically analyse the effectiveness and the pharmacoeconomic benefits.
A pilot survey was conducted on the traumatology wards to analyse and describe our clinical pharmacist interventions (CPI) based on severity and clinical relevance.
Three clinical pharmacists collected data on the changes of drug therapy at two 31-bed traumatology wards during pre- and postoperative period. We adopted the CPI classification system to our daily practices. This is challenging since the narrow time frame between patient admission and discharge often limits the opportunity to provide clinical pharmacy services. Raw data was previously screened and classified into 5 categories, drug related problems (DRP), clinical pharmacist intervention (CPI), significance (S), outcome (O) and acceptance (A).
We have established a data collection process, which allows us to record CPIs in our daily clinical environment in an efficient manner.
The most significant DRPs were incorrect dosage regimen (n=47), untreated indication (n=28), contraindication (n=25), excessive dose (n=19), subtherapeutic dose (n=17), drug interaction (n=15), no indication (n=11), experiencing adverse drug reaction (n=8), failure of drug administration due to shortages (n=5).
CPIs were divided into four groups:
1. Pharmacokinetic cause (dose adjustment, changes of drug dosage regimen, drug discontinuation, drug switch, etc.)
2. Pharmacodynamic cause (adding new drug, drug switch, – discontinuation, etc.),
3. Providing drug information (patient education, new drug, changes of administration route, etc.) and
4. Miscellaneous.
Significance were categorised as major (e.g. oral anticoagulant – LMWH switch, postoperative opioid use), moderate (e.g. loop diuretics – ion supplementation), minor.
Outcomes were therapeutic success, prevention of potential harm (e.g. adverse drug reaction) or cost saving.
73% of the interventions were accepted, the rest were rejected for the first time, but nearly half of them were admitted after minor modifications.
This CPI platform should be shared in the national digital health system.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Alba Manzaneque, Carla Jurado , Cristina Alonso , Mireia Cairó, Glòria Molas, Fernando Salazar , Lucía Boix, Roser Font, Laura López, Jordi Nicolás, Marc Campayo, Esther Calbo
Although an intrinsic risk of infection has not been associated with ICI, there are different studies and case-series in the literature in which an increased risk of infection is observed, mainly associated with the use of immunosuppressive drugs (like corticoids) for immune-mediated toxicities. The objective of implementing this circuit in our centre is to reduce all preventable infections, by carrying out an initial infection screening that allows detection of those patients susceptible to vaccination measures, prophylaxis, or specific recommendations.
Implementation of an infection screening circuit in cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitor drugs (ICI).
To carry it out, a multidisciplinary work team was created (pharmacy/oncology/infections department) that designed the ICI template and the clinical circuits. At this point, we believed it was necessary to centralise requests, results, and follow-ups in the oncology pharmacy team (OPT) in order to ensure that all patients were included.
Before the patient initiates treatment with ICIs, the OPT makes the request for a pre-established ICI analysis and the oncology nurse (ON) extracts it. Within 7-10 days, the infection department checks the results and makes the necessary recommendations (vaccination/prophylaxis/specific recommendations).
The OPT is then responsible for both vaccination and initiation of prophylaxis.
A total of 30 patients (January to September 2022) have been included in the circuit, 25/30 being men and with a mean age of 67.8 (± 8.8) years.
In 25/30 the treatment was with palliative intent, and 21/30 had lung neoplasia.
The ICIs prescribed were: pembrolizumab (15/30) and nivolumab/atezolizumab/durvalumab (5/30 in each case).
Screening results are available for 26/30 patients. Some type of recommendation was made in 25/26 patients, being: 20/26 hepatitis B vaccination, 5/26 start prophylaxis (2/5 hepatitis B and 3/5 tuberculosis), 6/26 hygienic-dietary measures (aimed at toxoplasmosis).
Additionally, all previously unvaccinated patients (23/26) have been vaccinated against pneumococcus.
A comparative analysis of infection with a historical cohort is planned when larger sample size is available, to demonstrate that these types of measures reduce the occurrence of infections. Centralising this type of initiative from the OPT is key to our integration into clinical teams, by avoiding important adverse reactions and taking care of our patients.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Catarina da Luz Oliveira, Maria Augusto, Carla Ferrer
Ideally, clinical pharmacy should be performed continually and not only at the Pharmaceutical Consultation. The usage of technologies as new communications channels between patients and pharmacists would contribute to this notion of continuous clinical pharmacy, so we started to develop the app PharmaClick. With this app, the pharmacist will be able to remotely monitor the patient therapy, to mitigate medication errors, to control adverse drug reactions, to detect possible drug interactions, and to promote therapy adherence.
We are developing a web application called PharmaClick. This app will allow the patient, after the respective Pharmaceutical Consultation at the hospital outpatient clinic, to communicate on time with his pharmacist and to give access to several features related with his medication.
The app PharmaClick is being developed using open source technology, Ruby on Rails, and is currently in a small-scale implementation to prove the viability of the project.
The PharmaClick app is now a pilot project and is being used as support on the Pharmaceutical Consultation. The patient is invited to download the app PharmaClick and he is introduced to its features, such as:
• How to identify his medication and dosage;
• How to set alarms for taking the medication and making the respective register, allowing the pharmacist to check the therapy adherence rate;
• How to request the scheduling of a new pharmaceutical appointment;
• How to communicate with the pharmacist using the chat to clarify some doubts that he may have after the appointment;
• How to register possible adverse drug reactions;
• How to submit the quality of life form, which will allow to indirectly measure the therapy efficiency.
The project is sustainable since it is easily applied on other health institutions. The app allows to anticipate possible medication problems. The goal is to provide health solutions that are remote and effective, to improve the patient participation in the healing process and in his wellbeing in the long run. The treatment success is easily improved at the distance of a PharmaClick.
