FIP World Congress Dublin 2013 - 31 August - 5 September 2013
FIP, the International Federation of Pharmacy, the largest (outside the US) pharmacy meeting comes to Dublin from August 30th until September 5th. The meeting comprises two components; the committees of FIP at which the representatives of the pharmacy organisations from around the world (all 127 of them!) debate FIP’s policies and its work with the WHO and other organisations; and the conference itself at which practitioners, researchers, regulators, industry and others discuss current topics and present practice initiatives and the results of their research. The conference theme is succinctly summarised as ‘complex patients’ and material associated with this theme is incorporated into the plenary sessions and in to the sessions of FIP’s Sections (Community, Hospital, Academic, Industry, Military and Emergency, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Social and Administrative, Pharmacy Information, Clinical Biology and Young Pharmacists) and its special interest groups, (which include, Translational Research, Natural Products, Biotechnology, Formulation design, Pharmacokinetics/Pharmacodynamics, Regulatory Sciences, Drug Design and Discovery and Analytical Sciences). A major poster and exhibition, featuring not only big Pharma but also small indigenous health and pharmacy companies, organisations such as Medecins Sans Frontiers and the American Pharmacists Association, will fill the main hall of the Convention Centre. The PSI is the principal Irish host but there will also be a number of parallel meetings to be supported, including the FIP Global Symposium for Pharmacy Technicians and one comprising senior officials from Departments of Health around the world which is following on from the Minister’s meeting last year at the Centennial FIP in Amsterdam. The FIP conference is also one of the events of The Gathering 2013.
Graduates and students, as well as academic staff of the School and of Trinity will be involved in many different sessions at FIP;
- Martin Henman has been serving on the Local Host Committee liaising with FIP for the past two years, is chairing the ‘Pharmacy in Ireland’ session and is speaking at the Community Pharmacy Section’s Asthma session and in Pharmacy Practice Research on Analgesic use in the elderly and is running a pre-conference meeting on Pharmaceutical Care.
- Tamasine Grimes will present on the unmet needs of patients in the context of transitions of care
- Tim Delaney will speak in a session, entitled ‘Implementing the vision’
- Dennis O’Driscoll will speak on methadone therapy in the context of integrating drug therapy and patient care
- Niamh Buckley is speaking on pharmacist-physician collaboration in the Community Pharmacy Section’s Managing Patients with Asthma session.
- Sheila Ryder is speaking on Education and Research at the Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Ireland session
Other presenters (oral communications and posters) will include; Cathal Cadogan, Mary-Claire Kennedy, Maire O’Dwyer, Aisling Reast, Bernadette Flood, Cicely Roche, Paula Reilly, Eimear O’Dwyer Bernard Duggan, Liz Hoctor, Niamh McMahon, Abishek Pallippattu, Paul Fahey and Jean McAleenan.
In addition, Mary Rose Burke, Darragh O’Loughlin and student representative, Lisa Coffey have all been serving on the Local Host Committee.
Undergraduate students are given the opportunity by FIP to act as hosts at the conference, and those from Trinity will include, Ailbhe Manning , Ciara O'Mahony, Damien Byrne, Emer Browne, Frances Joyce, Marina Rosca, Niamh Lloyd, Susannah Morris and Roula Awad.
Although the main conference sessions are concentrated in the Convention Centre on the quays, there will be some ancillary meetings and receptions held in College and as with many healthcare conferences nowadays, there is a ‘Fun Run’ for conference participants which will take place in College on Tuesday starting at 7 am – just in case you want to drop by to cheer them on!
Around 3,000 participants are expected from outside Ireland and they will enjoy not only the conference but also the social activities organized for them, and I hope that many of you will join them – a special one day registration rate will be available through the PSI for Irish pharmacists (see PSI notification) and students (undergraduate and postgraduate) and recent graduates can avail of a reduced registration rate.
The IPU is producing a Welcome FIP participants poster for display in community pharmacies and elsewhere and this simple device generates a great deal of goodwill, so please display one prominently if you can.
This is FIP’s second time in Dublin - from September 1st-5th in 1975 the theme was Quality Control and on that occasion the Local Host Committee included members of the School of Pharmacy – Mr Tom McGuinn, Dr Des Corrigan and Mr Val Harte and the opening address was given by Professor Richard Timoney. A reunion is being organized for the 1975 participants and the contact details are on the FIP site (see web address above).