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
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.
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
Nina RANJIT, Matthieu GALLET, Anthony TRIPLET, Myriam QUERMONNE , Alexandre COCHET
The rise of RLT is seeing the emergence of new treatments, using radioisotopes such as 177Lu or 223Ra. The radioactive nature of these treatments raises questions from patients. The aim of pharmaceutical consultations (PCs) is to respond to them by providing appropriate information on treatment modalities, adverse effects (AEs) and radiation protection rules. Thus, we carry out a PC at the initiation of an RIV for all new patients from January 2022 for PLUVICTO.
Radioligand therapy (RLT) consists of the administration of a radioactive drug. It makes it possible to treat cancer patients by specifically targeting tumour cells and destroying them using ionising radiation.
These particular treatments raise questions from patients. This is why we have implemented pharmaceutical interviews since 2022 and the beginning of RLT by PLUVICTO® during the first treatment, for all patients concerned. Subsequently, these consultations were extended to other therapies (lutathera, xofigo).
Before initiating RLT to a new patient, radiopharmacists check the eligibility of patients and the conformity of the indication. A few days before the first treatment, the patient’s file is consulted and important information is noted (urinary or fecal incontinence, digestive problems, biological assessment, co-medications). The day of the treatment, a personalized care plan is drawn up by the radiopharmacist and an information sheet bringing together information on the treatment (interval of treatments, dose, etc.), side effects and their management and the rules of radiation protection are provided. to the patient.
Collaboration with nuclear doctors has been set up to optimise patient care and information.
When necessary, pharmaceutical interventions are formulated directly to the clinician and plotted in a table.
Facing the success of these PCs we implement them for lutathera and xofigo, the two other RLT available.
In case of side effects, we also declare it to the pharmacovigilance service and give advice to patients and/or clinicians for manage them.
All documents are recorded in the computerised patient file.
The next step is to evaluate patient’s comprehension before the first interview to adapt its content to the patient.
We also would like to evaluate the patient’s satisfaction and expectations.
Discussions are underway to financially promote these tripartite consultations as exists for oral chemotherapy consultations.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Despite numerous attempts to improve medication information, patients express a need for more information about their drug treatment after discharge from hospital. A consequence of missing information could be unintentional non-adherence or adverse drug events. In Denmark, the electronic Shared Medication Record (SMR) lists the patients’ current drug treatment, but further relevant patient requested information is needed to support patients.
A booklet called My Medication Plan was developed as a tool to assist patients in managing their medication treatment. The Design Thinking Framework was applied as a model for involving patient representatives in the development as co-designers.
Three patient representatives from Hospital Sønderjylland participated during two group sessions with the purpose of generating ideas and designs for the My Medication Plan. Brainstorming was applied as an idea generating technique, since it is easy to use and effective in generating ideas in a short time. The ideas from the first session were used as inspiration for six prototypes of the booklet, which were presented and discussed at the second session. The final edition of the My Medication Plan was prepared based on this input.
The patient representatives stressed a need for specific instructions about the drugs’ application, boxes to note over-the-counter medication, dietary supplements and herbal remedies, as well as appointments with healthcare professionals to be a part of My Medication Plan. Additionally, free-text space for notes and questions about medication was requested. A non-electronic tool was specifically preferred because patients would have something to look at and write in meanwhile discussion medication changes and appointments. Furthermore, it could also provide relatives the opportunity to seek information about agreements made. According to the patient representatives, the final tool should include a print of the SMR and predefined pages including a glossary of medical terms. The developed tool, My Medication Plan, contains the requested information in an interchangeable design with a print of the SMR and the predefined papers added into plastic sleeves.
After developing the My Medication Plan, the next step is to use and test the effect of using the tool in relation to a sector transition intervention conducted as a randomised controlled trial.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Suzanne Al-Rawi, Sadeer Fhadil, Sotiris Antoniou, Rodnie Oro, Paul Wright
It is suggested that 40-80% of information provided by healthcare professionals is forgotten immediately by patients (1). The trust has a checklist of counselling requirements for anticoagulants, completed in consultations with patients before discharge. Recognising the complexity of anticoagulation counselling and its time constraints, we sought to assess the use of pre-recorded counselling videos for use at ward level and as a resource for patients to refer to post discharge.
We sought to develop anticoagulation counselling videos for ward use, with hyperlinks for patient access post-discharge. We aimed to improve information provided to patients and optimise pharmacists’ time undertaking counselling.
Using a patient focused questionnaire, feedback was sought on patient satisfaction as well as time totality following anticoagulation counselling. A series of short and digestible video clips (1-2minutes each) that reflected the trust checklist were recorded. The videos were played to the patient and then a follow-up face-to-face consultation was undertaken to answer any questions. Patient satisfaction and time taken was assessed through the use of the questionnaires and compared to consultations without the pre-recorded clips.
Over 4 weeks, 121 patients received anticoagulation counselling. 77 patients were counselled using videos and compared to 45 patients counselled without videos. There was a 70% reduction in time spent; an average face-to-face counselling required 24 minutes, compared to only 7 minutes if the patient had seen the videos. There was an overall increase in patient satisfaction with use of videos to 86% from 70%.
We have shown optimisation of the anticoagulation counselling process through the use of pre-recorded videos. Time spent counselling has been significantly reduced and feedback from pharmacy staff has suggested more patient-centric counselling is achieved. It has allowed for information to be standardised, with an increase in patient satisfaction and understanding. Patients have access to the videos on discharge to improve patient safety. There have not been any reported incidences since switching methods. There has been a reduction in patient queries related to anticoagulation post- discharge. Areas for further development include dubbing of the videos to several languages to improve access to all.
Patient Safety and Quality Assurance
Ghalib Abbasi
As we venture into the 2020s, health-system pharmacies need to consider these novel approaches to deliver pharmaceutical care to their patients given the changing population needs, lifestyles, and available home technologies accessible to most patients. The ultimate goals are to enhance patient safety, increase hospital pharmacy operational efficiency, and maximize revenue.
Novel technologies were implemented at Houston Methodist to enhance patient safety and experience. These include voice-activated devices in patient rooms, smart glasses for pharmacists, smart phones for hospital pharmacy service provision, artificial intelligence, and tele-health
Careful infrastructure considerations/build took place along with pharmacist-driven algorithm write-up. During this GPI, we’d like to discuss specific steps to make this happen along with sensible benefits we realized from implementing each technology.
Our hospital pharmacists got significantly more involved in direct patient care where notable efficiencies were realized on the operational side. In addition, medication education was significantly enhanced with improved patient access to their in-house hospital pharmacist.
Next steps include deploying these these technologies to further service lines and patient care areas, as well as investing into further meaningful technologies. We’ll review what’s in the pipeline as well.
Clinical Pharmacy Services
Marta Del Vecchio, Federica Chinotti , Claudia Lauria Pantano, Elirosa Minniti, Erika Cataldo, Francesco Guidoni, Vito Ladisa
The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome – Coronavirus – 2 (SARS-CoV-2 ) pandemic made it difficult to monitor the patient’s health condition because many of them were locked down at home, unable to attend routine hospital visits.
The hospital pharmacist, focusing on therapeutic continuity, closely collaborated with the clinicians in monitoring patient’s condition using telemedicine and homedelivery services.
In the multidisciplinary team, the pharmacist and the clinician defined the criteria to choose the most suitable patients for the homedelivery service. One of the options was to dispense the drug in a neighboring hospital. Because of the sanitary system regionalization, some of those hospitals could have been located even more than 100 km away, resulting in a problem for the most critical patients. In order to help them, home delivery and telemedicine services has been considered. The clinician used to visit patients on digital platforms, making clinical evaluations based on the results of blood tests, diagnostic tests and imaging techniques. According to clinician’s indications, the pharmacist took contact with patients, in first to collect informations about any residual storage of the drugs, adverse reactions, therapeutic compliance and then to proceed with the delivery. Everything has been done in conformity with the General data protection regulation (GDPR).
From March to September 2020, the homedlivery service count 501 speditions all over the Nation, 480 patients has been contacted to recive therapy and 250 of them has been intensively monitored by calling to manage their follow up. Everything has been done in order to protect critical patients from pandemic, safeguarding the therapeutic continuity,in compliance with pharmacovigilance, risk managment and cost saving for the national health system, considering that the suspension of therapies could be considered an additional and not quantifiable cost, but certainly important.
The hospital pharmacist must collaborate ever more with the clinician even in the post-pandemic phase, remotely managing not only the most weak patients, but extending the telemedicine and homedelivery services to an increasing number of patients, in order to safeguard their health .
Clinical Pharmacy Services
ANAIS AMAR, SIMON CLAUTRIER, MORGANE GIOVANELLI, REGINE CHEVRIER
The phytotherapy market has continued to grow for several years. However, in oncology, concomitant use of plants with oral or injectable chemotherapies can be harmful. Plants can interact with many cytochromes (CYP), impacting on the biotransformation and kinetics of drugs. While grapefruit or St John’s wort are already recognised as interfering with many therapies, the impact of many plants remains unknown for healthcare professionals. Tools exist to evaluate their effects on drug metabolism, but the multiplication of sources delays and complicates the advice of pharmacists.
Centralise information on plant metabolism on a single support by creating a database. Facilitate pharmacist’s expertise about interactions between plants and anticancer drugs.
To create the database, it was necessary to establish an exhaustive list of plants. Three sources of information have been used:
– Inventory of phytotherapy products marketed in 4 drugstores
– Census of plants consumed by patients seen in pharmaceutical consultation (PC)
– Consultation of websites specialized in phytotherapy
Then, an Excel table has been developed:
– each line corresponds to a plant
– each column corresponds respectively to 17 CYP, a transport protein (Pgp), estrogen-like (EL) and antioxidant (AO) properties of the plant.
A colour code has been defined according to the inhibitory (yellow), inductive (blue), EL (purple) and AO (red) action of the plant. If there is no interaction, the box remains blank.
Plant effects data were collected from Hedrine®, Oncolien®, MSKCC, RX list and Drugs.com websites.
Finally, 174 plants have been accounted in drugstores, 82 were identified during PC and 129 found on websites. If 10% of plants have an EL action and 16% an AO effect, approximately 30% have inductive and/or inhibitory action of at least one CYP and/or PgP. Since the tool’s creation: 91% of answers could be given immediately to patients compared to only 9% delayed (plants still unreferenced).
This database is an essential tool for answering questions from patients with anticancer drugs. It saves precious time and responsiveness during PC, but also during patient phone calls. However, critical work with divergent information between sources is to be expected. Currently, as a precaution, we don’t recommend the use of plants subject to such a contradiction.
