December 11, 2023Northern Health Pharmacy staff recently attended the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA) Medicines Management National Conference 2023 in Cairns.
The event is Australia’s largest scientific pharmacy conference, in which an impressive number of our pharmacy staff attended and submitted abstracts to present during the conference.
Jeff Khoshaba, Education, Research and Development Lead and Pharmacist, attended the conference. He said the event featured an inspiring range of presentation from students to senior management leaders and was a great place to share experiences and knowledge.
“It really was motivating to be in the midst of hundreds of hospital pharmacists and technicians from across the country who are passionate about their profession and their input into healthcare,” Mr Khoshaba said.
“We can truly say Northern Health shone, with fantastic feedback and commentary from conference attendees. The conference was inspiring and a great opportunity to gather knowledge and share innovative ideas from hospital pharmacists and pharmacy technicians from across the country.”
Twelve pharmacy staff presented at the event, showcasing research projects, pharmacy services and quality improvement activities:
- Aaron Hoey (Oral Presentation): Home is Where the Heart is – Does a Virtual Ward Improve Prescribing Practices?
- Cynthia Donarelli (Poster Presentation): MedPass – a ticket to dietitian prescribing oral nutritional supplements.
- Danni Miatke (Poster Presentation): ‘Off-Sides’: Management of complex Non-Tuberculosis Mycobacterial infections in an ‘Aminoglycoside free’ hospital.
- Emma Burnet (Poster Presentation): Should we risk it? A VTE Risk Screening and Anticoagulation Prescribing Audit.
- Gina Georges (Poster Presentation): Slipping Up on Sliding Scales.
- Nikayla Van Krieken (Poster Presentation): Allergy Alert! Evaluation of the communication of new allergies post-discharge.
- Andrew Leake (Poster Presentation): Spinning Silver into Gold: An Evaluation of an IBD Pharmacy Technician-Led Subcutaneous Biologic Delivery Service.
- Nivein Yenis (Poster Presentation): Right under your nose. Pharmacy support in the implementation of a novel randomised controlled trial.
- Angela Given (Poster Presentation): Old tools – new tricks? iGuidance as a decision support tool in prescribing COVID-19 antivirals.
- Jeff Khoshaba (Poster Presentation): Shining the research idea light brighter.
- Alexandra Brown (Poster Presentation): The Virtual Reality of Medication Error Reduction Through Multidisciplinary Teamwork.
- Alexandra Brown (Poster Presentation): A Virtual Patient Experience.
“As the Education, Research and Development Lead Pharmacist I attended the conference to support our Northern Health presenters, scope innovative ideas and gain insight into education, development and research in hospital pharmacy departments across the country,” Mr Khoshaba said.
“The conference theme was about finding ‘Space to grow’ and was an excellent opportunity to reflect on pharmacy practice over the years and collaborate with colleagues from across the country to establish ideas on growing the pharmacy profession and optimising medication management for our patients at Northern Health.”
