Prova2

Welcome to educational sessions

Session leads:

Björn Wettermark (Uppsala University)

Introduction to DUR
Educational session

Session leads:

Indre Treciokiene (Vilnius University)
Carlotta Lunghi (University of Bologna and Link Campus University, Rome)

Qualitative/ quantitative mixed methods
Educational session

Session leads:

Petra Denig (University Medical Center Groningen)
Eva-Lill Nilsson

Measuring medication adherence
Educational session

Session leads:

Gabriel Sanfélix-Gimeno (FISABIO, Valencia)
Alexandra Leila Dima (Sant Joan de Déu Research Foundation, Barcelona)

Critical appraisal of statistics in DUR
Educational session

Session leads:

Monique Elseviers (University Antwerp)
Mikael

Longitudinal DU studies
Educational session

Session leads:

Elisabetta Poluzzi (University of Bologna)
Per-Jostein Samuelsen

Environment in DUR
Educational session

Session leads:

Ana Tomas Petrovic (University of Novi Sad, Serbia)
Johanna Villén (Uppsala University)

Welcome reception

More information is found on the page "Social activities"

Adherence
Keynote Lecture and Oral Communications

Medication adherence is unarguably a key aspect to improving chronic disease outcomes and reducing health care costs. Digital tools could have a relevant role for adherence measurement and for adherence support interventions. Healthcare professionals have limited awareness of the availability and use of adherence-enhancing technology, and there is insufficient collaboration among stakeholders. The successful widespread adoption of such technology across Europe is also hindered by a lack of understanding of the varying healthcare systems, reimbursement processes, and policy regulations that differ significantly between countries.

The session will give an overview of the European Network to Advance Best practices & technoLogy on medication adherencE (ENABLE) achievements and their future goals. Different aspects of adherence research will be discussed by contributors, followed by an open discussion with the audience.

Facilitators:

Gabriel Sanfélix-Gimeno (FISABIO, Valencia)
Alexandra Leila Dima (Sant Joan de Déu Research Foundation, Barcelona)

Keynote:

Alexandra Leila Dima (Sant Joan de Déu Research Foundation, Barcelona): “Medication adherence technologies and best practices across European health systems: contributions from the ENABLE network”

Oral communications:

Maria Rubio-Valera: “Improving clinical outcomes through shared decision-making: Findings from the Initial Medication Adherence-cluster randomized controlled trial (IMA-cRCT)”

Fredrik Nyberg: “The COVID-19 pandemic and statin adherence in Sweden: insights from cohort analyses before and during the crisis”

Nora Wulandari: “Factors associated with adherence to glucose-lowering medication among adults with diabetes in Indonesia: A national survey”

Ellen van Loon: “The Annual Medication Consultation: Implementation study of an adherence intervention in Dutch community pharmacies”

Crisis preparedness
Keynote Lecture and Oral Communications

In an era of global crises, threats such as pandemics, natural disasters, armed conflicts and geopolitical instabilities have highlighted the vulnerability of healthcare systems. Access to essential medicines in affected regions was compromised as supply chains were frequently disrupted, depriving affected population of access to essential medicines. The impact of these crises on access to essential medicines extended beyond specific regions, affecting global medicine availability.

The presentations and discussions of this session will provide answers to:

• How did crises such as the pandemic or conflict have affected access to and use of medicines?

• What lessons have we learnt from these crises that can prepare us for the next one?

• How can we, through drug utilization research, provide evidence to inform policies and practice to improve access to medicine during crises?

Facilitator:

Nataliia Khanyk (Uppsala University)

Keynote:

Saleh Aljadeeah (University Antwerp): “Navigating drug utilization research to improve access to medicines during crises: Lessons from conflict-affected regions”

Oral communications:

Maarten Lambert: “Pharmacists' Perspectives on Antibiotic Shortages: Implications for Clinical Practice in Australia”

Andrea D. Bertoldi: “Pediatric use of non-evidence-based medications and supplements for COVID-19 treatment or prevention during the pandemic: 2015 Pelotas (Brazil) Birth Cohort Study” ------------------------------------------------

Isabel Hach: “Changes in the prevalence of diagnoses and psychotropic drug prescriptions in 12-17 year olds in Germany before and after the COVID-19 pandemic”

Verena Knoll: “Made in Europe - assessing the feasibility of reshoring active pharmaceutical ingredient production to Europe”

Quality use of medicines
Keynote Lecture and Oral Communications

Quality of medicines use includes consideration of non-pharmacological options and choosing medicines fitting to the individual’s need, taking into account effectiveness, safety, patient experience, timeliness, but also efficiency and equity. Assessing quality of medicine use is needed to minimise misuse, overuse and underuse of medication and reduce medicines waste. This session will provide new insights in sustainable medicines use, variation in prescription patterns, with attention for populations with specific needs.

Facilitators:

Petra Denig (University Medical Center Groningen)
Elin Dahlen (NEPI – Network for Pharmacoepidemiology and Uppsala University)

Keynote:

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Oral communications:

Hanna Rättö: “Comparing quality of pharmacotherapy across regions using register data”

Edwin Tan: “Quality use of antipsychotics in people with dementia: a national data linkage study”

Juan Carlos Bazo-Alvarez: “Prescription Patterns of Antipsychotics in People with Dementia in UK Primary Care: Dosage, Duration, and Restart Rates”

Degefaye Zelalem Anlay: “Balancing Palliative Care Needs and Medication Appropriateness: Prevalence and Risk Factors of Initiation and Reinitiation of Medications at the End of Life”

Evidence generation for the introduction of new drugs using RWD
Keynote Lecture

The keynote lecture will inform about challenges in the evidence generation for the introduction of new medicines, when using real-world data (RWD). Limitations of RWD compared to RCTs are discussed. The talk will highlight developments in studies of RWD and its use and showcase potential solutions to address these challenges. A case study with the learnings from a study on heart failure will be presented.

Facilitator:

Björn Wettermark (Uppsala University)

Keynote:

Peter Mol (Medical Center Groningen)

Health literacy and patient engagement
Keynote Lecture

Health literacy (HL) is the degree to which individuals can find, understand, and use information and services to inform health‐related decisions. Low HL levels predispose to poor medication adherence and health outcomes. Awareness and knowledge of HL amongst researchers in DUR can lead to insights when gathering data for epidemiological studies.
Introduction to Health Literacy as a concept and how this relates to DUR. Awareness of the levels of limited HL is crucial to understanding interpreting population level data regarding medication management and use.

Facilitator:

Laura Sahm (University College Cork)
Tinne Dilles (University of Antwerp)

Keynote:

Jenny Gentizon (University of Lausanne): ”Medication literacy assessment in geriatric patients”

Posters and short oral communications

A wealth of knowledge presented in several parallel sessions on all EuroDURG Conference topics!

Cross-national comparisons
Workshop

Studies on the comparison of drug utilization across countries covers a wide variation of topics ranging from descriptive studies on available and accessible data sources for DUR to comparative longitudinal studies on the national consumption of a particular drug class.

The workshop will start with two short presentations of CNC studies performed in Latin-America and Europe focussing on the challenges and pitfalls encountered.

Thereafter, attendees will be offered to obtain more insight in the validity of CNC studies. On the hand of a published CNC study and using the recently developed CNC checklist, they will evaluate the quality of the data used and learn to detect possible bias in population and drug coverage that can jeopardize comparison.

Workshop leads:

Monique Elseviers (University Antwerp)
Ria Benko (University of Szeged)

Keynotes:

Luciane Lopes (University of Sorocaba, São Paulo): “A cross-national study of data sources for DUR in Latin-American countries”

Marion Bennie (University of Strathclyde, Glasgow): “The prevalence of polypharmacy in older Europeans: a multi-national database study of general practitioner prescribing”

DUR book: use as research and educational assistant
Workshop

The second edition of the DUR book was published in 2024. The book, with numerous contributions of the EuroDURG community, offers a wealth of information and is a valuable guide for teaching.

Learn in the workshop about the outline and purpose of the book and how to use the book in education.

Workshop leads:

Indre Treciokiene (Vilnius University)
Björn Wettermark (Uppsala University)

Clinical Decision Support System for drugs
Workshop

As part of the "Safe and Efficient Medication Chain" (SELK) project, Region Uppsala plans to introduce hospital unit dose medication for inpatients: the hospital pharmacy will deliver pre-packaged, ready-to-use medication doses to the wards, relieving staff from preparing doses themselves.

The workshop informs about the SAPVAL (Systems-Assisted Pharmaceutical VALidation) project undertaken at Uppsala University Hospital. The project aims to enhance and deepen the medical aspect of the pharmaceutical assessment. The overall goal of the project is to develop, implement, and evaluate an effective method in the form of a hospital-wide screening system to identify a larger proportion of risk prescriptions than is currently possible.

The SAPVAL project is both an operational development project and a research project, and two studies were performed in the framework of the project.

In addition to the presentation of the SAPVAL project, the workshop will actively engage with the workshop participants who will discuss clinical rules in the pilot study and transferability to their own settings.

Workshop leads:

Ulrika Gillespie (Uppsala University Hospital)

EuroDURG General Assembly

Learn about past activities and future plans of EuroDURG!

Participate in the EuroDURG community!

Drugs & environment
Keynote Lecture and Oral Communications

Global increase in use of pharmaceuticals brings an issue of environmental risk stemming from pharmaceutical pollution, as pharmaceuticals and their metabolites can reach the environment throughout their lifecycle. Pharmaceuticals and their residues have been identified in all environmental compartments, as they are difficult to remove with standard wastewater treatment. Pharmaceuticals in the environment are known to induce adverse effects in wildlife and contribute to the development of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), with high probable consequences on the ecosystem. Drug utilization studies with environmental perspective can guide policymakers and other stakeholders by identifying most alarming medicines for specific geographical areas and proposing measures to limit pharmaceutical pollution.

The opportunities for environmental drug utilization studies are on the rise with the increasing availability of information on environmental concerns related to pharmaceuticals.

Facilitator:

Ana Tomas Petrovic (University of Novi Sad, Serbia)
Elisabetta Poluzzi (University of Bologna)

Keynote:

Gerd Mack (Department of Pharmaceuticals at the German Environment Agency (UBA)): “The Pharmacy of the fish – Pharmaceuticals in the environment and their environmental impact”

Oral communications:

Elisabetta Poluzzi: “Environmental impact of antidepressants: is a new prescription framework possible?”

Lydia Niemi: “Integration of drug utilisation and environmental data: Working together towards environmentally informed pharmaceutical prescribing in Scotland”

Björn Eriksson: “Promoting sustainable prescribing – experiences from two Swedish Drug & Therapeutics Committees”

Milad Sadreghaemy: “Patient Preferences Regarding Drug Use and Its Environmental Impact”

Methods in DUR
Keynote Lecture and Oral Communications

The session will address several aspects around methods in DUR, including:

• What are challenges in current DUR methods?

• Which contributions of methodological advances in DUR to the overall evidence base and informed policy-making have been observed?

• How to increase access to data?

Facilitators:

Carlotta Lunghi (University of Bologna and Link Campus University, Rome)
Anders Sundström (Medical Products Agency, Uppsala)

Keynote:

Fredrik Nyberg (Gothenburg University): “Record linkage of registries to study utilization and effects of medicines. Experience from the SCIFI-PEARL project”

Oral communications:

Robert Vander Stichele: “Linking the ATC classification to the ISO/CEN standardized global Identification of medicinal products and to national identifiers of medicinal product packages. Quality control and refinement of the measurement of exposure to medicines in big data”

Angela Boccia: “Contribution to the Development of the ATC/DDD Classification System from Italian Working Group on DDD: Assigning a Defined Daily Dose (DDD) to Anti-Angiogenic Drugs (ATC S01LA)”

Aleksi Hamina: “Bias stemming from imbalance of incident and prevalent cases in follow-up studies of mortality — something to worry about?”

Fabian Windfuhr: “European perspectives on ethical aspects around utilization of patient registries for medicines decision-making”

Polypharmacy
Keynote Lecture and Oral Communications

Polypharmacy is beneficial for many patients but increases the risk of experiencing harmful effects. Particularly at risk are older people eligible for deprescribing, i.e. discontinuing or deintensifying treatment which is no longer necessary and patients who experience prescribing cascades, i.e. the prescribing of medication for preventable adverse drug reactions. Many interventions have been developed to optimize polypharmacy, but successful implementation of interventions is a struggle.

The session will describe interventions to optimize polypharmacy focusing on older people and address the struggles in evaluation to achieve long term implementation of successful strategies in the context of the vulnerable population of older individuals.

Facilitator:

Katja Taxis (University of Groningen)
Ulf Bergman (Karolinska Institutet)

Keynote:

Petra Denig (University Medical Center Groningen)

Oral communications:

Daniala Weir: “Medication Trajectories Among Individuals with Diabetes Type 2 and Other Chronic Conditions: A Descriptive Study”

Ruveyda Yilmaz: “Dose-dependent relationships observed for prescribing cascades: a cohort study”

Kieran Dalton: “Development of a prescribing cascade classification framework: a modified nominal group technique study”

Alessandro Cesare Rosa: “Identification of the target population for a deprescribing and medication review service in general practice: A pilot project in Italy”

Drugs and safety
Keynote Lecture and Oral Communications

Patterns of treatment and characteristics of treated patients/subjects may markedly differ between clinical trial and post-marketing settings, which can have unwanted consequences on the effectiveness and safety of a given medicine. Drug utilization research provides support to the post-marketing risk-benefit evaluation. It supports detection and prioritization of safety signals, estimation of ADR incidence rates and ADR public health impact, description of the characteristics of treated individuals, patterns of use, patient adherence as well as assessment of effectiveness of risk minimisation measures and impact of regulatory interventions.

The session aims to enhance the fact that DUR is needed for improving real-life medication safety, guiding rational drug use and enabling country benchmarking in terms of quality of prescribing for better public health outcomes.

Facilitator:

Katarina Gvozdanović (Teaching Institute of Public Health "Dr. Andrija Stampar", Zagreb)
Carla Torre (University of Lisbon)

Keynote:

Ulla Wändel Liminga (Medical Products Agency, Uppsala): “Drug utilisation in pharmacovigilance – a regulatory perspective”

Oral communications:

Iva Kuliš: “Analysis of JAK inhibitors prescribing trends in Croatia in the view of new risk minimisation measures”

Gabriela Rolová: “Mortality among patients with long-term prescription opioid use in Norway”

Carlotta Lunghi: “Psychotropic Medication Use and Mortality Risk in Cluster B Personality Disorders: A Nested Case-Control Study”

Mohammed Alsuwat: “Understanding Medication Safety in Prison Healthcare: A Review of Incident Reports

DUR in cancer
Keynote Lecture and Oral Communications

This session addresses the growing importance of drug utilization research (DUR) in the field of oncology, where the complexity of treatment regimens, high costs, and rapid pace of innovation present unique challenges for healthcare systems and policy makers. The session will explore real-world evidence and stakeholder perspectives across different global contexts, highlighting regulatory considerations, clinical practice patterns, and health system impacts.

Together, these presentations will underscore the role of DUR in informing evidence-based cancer care, addressing disparities, and shaping future policy.

Facilitator:

Hossein Hajiebrahimi (Uppsala University)
Amanj Kurdi (University of Strathclyde, Glasgow)

Keynote:

Nils Wilking (Karolinska Institutet): “Cancer in Europe 2025 - Disease Burden, Costs and Access to Medicines”

Oral communications:

Sieta T. de Vries: “Views of European Union medicine regulators and healthcare professionals on the approved versus prescribed dose of Protein Kinase Inhibitors: An interview study”

Claudia Garcia Serpa Osorio-de-Castro: “Perceptions of clinical oncologists and hospital pharmacists on shortages of cancer medicines in Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Ecuador: A qualitative study” ----------------------------------------------------------------

Aya Elhusseiny Shaaban: “Real-World Use and Survival Outcomes of Sacituzumab Govitecan in Metastatic Triple-Negative Breast Cancer and Hormone Receptor-Positive/HER2-Negative Breast Cancer: Insights from the French Early Access Program”

Igor Rubinić: “Real-world evidence for pembrolizumab in non-small cell lung cancer: a monocentric cohort study”

Plenary 2

AI as aid and challenge in DUR

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been gaining importance in numerous areas of life, and it also impacts research and policy-making. The session will inform about and discuss the implications of AI for DUR and DUR-based policy-making, which have been observed and are expected to come in (near) future.

Facilitators:

Carlotta Lunghi (University of Bologna and Link Campus University, Rome)
Björn Wettermark (Uppsala University)

Keynote:

Morten Andersen (University Copenhagen)

Posters and short oral communications

A wealth of knowledge presented in several parallel sessions on all EuroDURG Conference topics!

Global environment in DUR: challenges and progress in research in different regions
Workshop

Different drug utilization scenarios, specific health system characteristics, and diverse cultural, structural and economic backgrounds of countries may account for several differences in drug utilization research levels and practices in and among world regions. The WHO offers a scope of the following regions: Africa, Americas, Easter Mediterranean, Europe, South-East Asia, and Western Pacific. However, there are considerable differences inside these regions.

A brief description of each region´s accomplishments, strengths and challenges in DUR, as a round table of experts, followed by matrix summary with discussion in which to point out shared problems and novel ideas for developing DUR.

In this session the organizers aim to consider, in a comprehensive way, strengths and challenges in DUR for each and all regions, and to summarize expectations for future directions brought by regions. The goal is to find common ground to share and to foster collaboration to overcome limitations and shortcomings.

Workshop leads:

Lisa Pont (University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Syndey)
Claudia Garcia Serpa Osorio-de-Castro (Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Rio de Janeiro) -------------------------------------------------------

Keynote:

Lisa Pont (University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Syndey)

Communication between professionals and the public
Workshop

Research within areas of healthcare – including drug utilization research – assists in establishing the evidence which underpins healthcare, clinical guideline development and health policy. Informing the general public and people in need of healthcare about how research informs recommendations and decisions about health and care can support them in making informed choices. Researchers may need to explain research to potential study participants, disseminate research findings through various media or outline implications of policy changes based on new evidence. Communication styles and channels will have to be adapted according to the target group’s pre-existing knowledge, specific interests and information needs.

The aim of this workshop is to discuss how to select appropriate means, methods, and language when communicating complex matters affecting healthcare to the general public. Participants will analyse different approaches of communicating information to people with varying backgrounds and needs, and are invited to introduce a topic they would like to communicate to the public for group discussion.

Workshop leads:

Irene Langner (Wissenschaftliches Institution der AOK (WidO), Berlin)
Tanja Mueller (University of Strathclyde, Glasglow)

Keynote:

Karen Luetsch (University of Queensland): Communicating evidence and healthcare information to the public

Digitalization and databases in DUR
Keynote Lecture and Oral Communications

The session will provide examples of databases, tools, algorithms and methods that support medication and drug utilization research processes.

Facilitator:

Sean MacBride Stewart (NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde)
Irene Langner (Wissenschaftliches Institution der AOK (WidO), Berlin)

Keynote:

Tora Hammar (Linnaeus University, Kalmar): “From Data to Decisions: Enhancing Medication Safety with AI, Health Data and Interdisciplinary collaboration”

Oral communications:

Petra Denig: “Development of computerized algorithms to define deprescribing of cardiovascular and diabetes medication”

Pia Vattulainen: “Open-source application for estimating treatment episodes: PRE2DUP-R”

Ghinwa Y. Hayek: “An AI powered tool to identify and assess fit-for-use registries for real-world evidence”

Ivar Veszelei: “Introduction of biopharmaceuticals in Europe: opportunities and challenges to compare drug utilization patterns across countries”

DUR in pregnancy and paediatrics
Keynote Lecture and Oral Communications

The unique physiological and psychological needs of pregnant women and children present significant challenges for ensuring safe and effective medication use. Factors such as physiological changes during pregnancy, the potential for teratogenic effects, or developmental variations in pediatric populations necessitate a focused approach to DUR in these vulnerable groups. This session will explore the complexities of medication use during pregnancy, childhood and adolescence, as well as prevalence, patterns of use, and the implications of drug exposure in these populations.

The session will address the following issues related to DUR in pregnancy and pediatrics:

• Examining patterns of medication use

• Understanding the intersection of mental health and medication use

• Policy implications and future research directions

Facilitators:

Tanja Mueller (University of Strathclyde, Glasglow)
Ramune Jacobsen (University of Copenhagen)

Keynote:

Elin Kimland (Medicines Products Agency): “Challenges and opportunities in paediatric drug utilization research”

Oral communications:

Carole Marxer: “Exposure to potentially teratogenic medications before and during the first trimester of pregnancy compared to women of childbearing age: A retrospective analysis of Swiss claims data (2015-2021)”

Silvia Segovia Chacón: “Use of hypnotics before, during, and after pregnancy in Sweden 2007-2022”

Rami AL-gueri. “Beyond Medication: How Danish Adolescents and Young Adults with Mental Conditions Integrate Humanities-Based Approaches in Their Treatment Journeys”

Carlotta Lunghi: “Two Decades of ADHD Medication Use Among Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults in Quebec, Canada: Prevalence and Patterns”

Closing Plenary

One Health and DUR

One Health is an interdisciplinary framework that aims to sustainably advance and safeguard the health of humans, animals, and the environment emphasizing that the health of people is inextricably linked to that of ecosystems and the species inhabiting them, thus including humans, domestic and wild animals, plants and the wider environment.

One Health can help prevent, predict, detect and respond to global health threats such as emergence of infectious diseases (e.g., COVID-19), antimicrobial resistance, zoonoses (e.g., flu, rabies, Rift Valley fever), food safety and promote the health and integrity of our ecosystems.

Collaboration among professionals from various domains — including medicine, veterinary science, and environmental science — is essential for effectively managing and preventing health risks.

In this Closing Plenary, two high-profile keynote speakers will share their knowledge on One Health. Leaving the Conference, participants will be equipped to both broadly and in depth understand the One Health approach and the wide range of current and future health challenges it encompasses. The keynote lecture will help the participants to understand how DUR and One Health are connected. By this Closing, Conference participants will understand how they can contribute with their research in preventing, detecting, reducing and managing health threats at the human-animal-ecosystem interface.

Facilitators:

Marmar Nekoro (Medicines Products Agency and Uppsala University)
Katja Taxis (University of Groningen)

Keynotes:

Susanna Sternberg-Lewerin (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala): “One Health and the different interfaces between people, animals, plants and environment”
Suanna Sternberg-Lewerin will focus on pharmaceuticals and making participants understand how their research can contribute to One Health approach and better health for people, animals and ecosystems

Michael Bertram (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå): “Medicating the environment: impacts of pharmaceutical pollution on fitness-related traits and behaviours in wildlife”

Michael Bertram will talk about

• how the issue of drugs in the environment is fundamentally a One Health problem

• a new study they have done on anti-anxiety medications in waterways and their impacts on Atlantic salmon migration
• finishing with a short discussion about his work at the UN negotiations.

Panelists:

Elisabetta Poluzzi (University of Bologna)
Ana Tomas Petrovic (University of Novi Sad, Serbia)

Facilitator:

Lisa Pont (University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Sydney)

Closing and awards:

Elisabetta Poluzzi (University of Bologna), Chair of EuroDURG Executive Committee
Ria Benko (University of Szeged)
Sabine Vogler (Austrian National Public Health Institute)
Björn Wettermark (Uppsala University), Chair of the Local Organizing Committee