Special uses of the drug in onco-hematology: the role of the hospital pharmacist
Multidisciplinary Sifo youth symposium in Trieste: management, sustainability, follow up of early access therapies
ROME – How to manage pharmacological therapies not yet authorized (but considered appropriate and effective) in the oncology-hematology field? How to deal with the high cost that often accompanies these new “therapeutic weapons”? How to monitor the use, sustainability and follow-up of these innovative products?
The SIFO course Special uses of medicines in onco-haematology: hospital pharmacists, oncologists and haematologists in comparison, which will be held starting tomorrow in Trieste (7-8 June 2024 at the Hotel NH Trieste) aims to answer these questions. .
The two-day event was organized by the SIFO Youth Area, with the scientific coordination of Chiara Lamesta, Gabriele Bagaglini and Nicola Nigri.
For what reasons did SIFO want to propose an event on the special uses of the drug, and what training needs does the Trieste event intend to respond to?
The three scientific managers respond: “The increasingly frequent use of the so-called Early Access Programs-EAP, which allow the use of therapies not yet authorized or reimbursed in order to guarantee the patient early access to the drug where those already available do not represent the best possible therapeutic option, it is generating various needs both among clinicians and hospital pharmacists regarding their correct management. The Trieste event therefore intends to respond to specific needs that, as usual, SIFO intercepts among its members and within its professional environment”.
The event which opens in the Julian capital was completely planned and promoted by young professionals from the Italian hospital pharmacy: why this original initiative?
“The SIFO Youth Area is actively committed to promoting training excellence among young hospital pharmacists”, respond Lamesta, Bagaglini and Nigri, “Many of these professionals, including the members of the Youth Area, are exploring innovative areas such as radiopharmacy, oncology pharmacy and the evaluation of therapeutic appropriateness. Our aim is to raise the quality of healthcare, which is based not only on solid clinical skills, but also on effective management and training. We believe it is essential to develop and consolidate communication skills among professionals in the sector, since precise and efficient communication translates into tangible benefits for both professionals and patients. In this spirit, the Youth Area is dedicated to shaping the future of healthcare.”
The two days, which will open with the introductory greetings of the president Arturo Cavaliere and Chiara Roni (Regional Secretary of SIFO Friuli-Venezia Giulia) will see a succession of five sessions within which the hospital pharmacy experiences will be put into interrelationship with those of hematologists (with the intervention of Martina Pennisi, secretary of the Italian Society of Hematology) and oncologists (represented by Lorenzo Gerratana, associate professor at the Department of Medicine of the University of Udine as well as member of AIOM Giovani).< /strong>
The choice of a multidisciplinary workshop is motivated as follows by the scientific managers:
“Over the last few years, it has become clear how important teamwork is in the medical context. A multidisciplinary approach, in which all healthcare professionals are equally involved within an integrated project and workflow, has proven to be very effective and extraordinarily decisive in the majority of cases. In particular, in the daily activity of managing the new therapies available, dialogue with clinicians is becoming increasingly essential: at the basis of adequate planning of needs there is in fact a constant dialogue with those who are responsible for enrolling new patients according to the incidence of the disease in a given area. Correct planning becomes a determining factor when the drug is approved and reimbursed at the SSN transfer price, in order to avoid a lack of economic capacity to cover patients already enrolled in EAP and future ones”.
Faithful to this multidisciplinary imprint, the Trieste course is open to both hospital pharmacists and surgeons and intends to respond in this way to a precise mission contained in the SIFO 2020-2024 Programmatic Document, also faithful to the actions of the SIFO Youth Area which during the current four-year period has started an active collaboration both with ISPOR (International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research) and with the young groups of SIE and AIOM.
“The purpose of the event”, conclude Chiara Lamesta, Gabriele Bagaglini and Nicola Nigri, “is twofold: on the one hand to provide a training follow-up to the AGENAS document, submitted by the Ministry of Health to the State-Regions Conference – Guidelines on integration hospital-territory in Oncology – in which the Multidisciplinary Oncology Groups-GOM are mentioned, of which oncologists, hematologists and hospital pharmacists must necessarily be part; on the other, informing and training the students present on the opportunities as well as the critical issues implicit in the management of EAP therapies. This is pursued with an approach that follows the Share, Grow, Learn logic, because we are convinced that improving the quality of care requires, alongside the traditional clinical dimension, also knowledge of the organizational dimensions and the activation of coordination processes and relational which in an increasingly complex and multidisciplinary system become essential prerogatives for obtaining adequate performance from the system”.