• Description

For the first time, the Pharmaceutical Care Network Europe and EuroPharm Forum jointly organised a conference dedicated to the topic 'Research meets Pharmacy Practice'. The overall aim was to bring together politicians, practitioners and researchers to discuss the possibilities for enhanced cooperation to ensure th at pharmaceutical care services wil! be effective, relevant to patients and the public, and recognised by decision-makers. With the wish to stimulate collaborative working and sharing, the conference opened a debate around the following topics:

• How can we facilitate coordinated approaches and collaborative working between pharmaceutical care research and pharmacy practice to the benefit of the patients?
• How can we ensure relevant and effective pharmacy services?
• How can one ensure effectiveness wh en scaling up research projects in
• pharmacy practice?

The focus of the conference was measuring practice, and for this purpose one must recognise the importance of indicators and descriptors of situations and processes. The working definitions for those two essential elements of process control were as follows:

• Descriptors: Characteristics of a system th at describe a process or a structure and that do not, or hardly, change over time. Can be qualitative or quantitative.
• Indicators: Quantitative variables of a system that describe results of processes (=change in outcomes) and that do usually change over time.

The conference was a big success and especially the workshops were very much appreciated, but many participants found them too short. The evaluation forms showed that the participants recognised the need for working on the management of implementation and dissemination and suggested that as a topic for a next joint conference.
We may look forward to the next time that research and practice wil! meet.

Eeva Teräsalmi (EuroPharm) and Martin Henman (Pharmaceutical Care Network Europe)

Proceedings have been prepared from this conference.

Chairs of the conference: Eeva Teräsalmi, Finland & Martin Henman, Ireland

Oranisation: Europharm Office, Copenhagen, Denmark

Abstract review committee:

• Dr. Martin Schulz, Germany
• Dr. Birthe Søndergaard, Denmark
• Dr. Dick Tromp, the Netherlands
• Dr. Foppe van Mil, the Netherlands