Our Technical Assurance team attended the Clinical Pharmacy Congress in London in June to publicise the Pharmacy Assurance technical review and how it can make a positive impact on the set up of clinical trials in the UK.
The congress is the largest gathering for clinical pharmacy professionals held in the UK and gave the team the opportunity to promote the process and its benefits more widely.
The Pharmacy Assurance process coordinates a single technical pharmacy review for eligible studies, which can be used by all participating NHS (or HSC in Northern Ireland) study sites across the UK. This saves sites from conducting their own, separate technical pharmacy reviews.
As well as occupying their stand in the main hall, Anoushka Tepielow, Technical Assurance Manager, presented to delegates in the Technology Theatre on the benefits of the Pharmacy Assurance process, while the HRA’s Pharmacy Expert Advisor Anita Chhabra from Cambridge University Hospitals co-presented to provide delegates with a first-hand account from both an HRA-registered reviewer and participating site perspective.
Anoushka Tepielow, Technical Assurance Manager"Anita and I were able to provide a sponsor and site perspective on the usefulness of the process and what it actually meant at a practical level. The talk was well attended and generated further interest in the process and good discussion about the needs of both sponsors and pharmacy departments.”
Over the course of the weekend, members of team engaged with delegates, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in attendance about the process from both an HRA-reviewer and participating site perspective.
Kirstie Penman, Technical Assurance Officer‘Speaking to people working in the field, doing the day job and hearing how interested they were in the process from a pharmacist’s perspective was really rewarding. Getting pharmacists engaged in the process early on is really encouraging and we hope to have more pharmacists apply to become HRA-registered reviewers over the course of the next phase of rollout before the process is integrated into HRA and HCRW Approval.’
They now hope to return in 2020.