A meeting of minds

HPE has developed a reputation over the past ten years for interesting, varied and authoritative content. The next logical step for HPE  is to hold a congress that will give our readers the opportunity to come together, listen to some expert speakers and share ideas. With this in mind, we have planned HPE Live, to be held in Birmingham in October this year.

So far, so good, but what makes HPE Live special? It is a programme designed to meet the needs of chief pharmacists and service managers underpinned by our special relationship with professional bodies and CPD accreditation by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Faculty. The congress is supported by the UK Clinical Pharmacy Association, the Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists, the German Hospital Pharmacy Association, the British Oncology Pharmacy Association and the College of Mental Health Pharmacy. The editorial team at HPE prides itself on developing a collegial relationship with these bodies who represent our target readers and many of our expert authors.

We have thought long and hard about how to make a worthwhile programme for busy hospital pharmacists. We know from the feedback that we receive from readers that two issues have come to dominate day-to-day practice. They are – working within limited budgets and patient safety. Balancing the competing demands of these two overarching imperatives is an ever-present concern for many hospital pharmacists. Thus, the programme for HPE Live contains two streams: one devoted to safety and one to affordability. The programme also contains a small number of industry-sponsored workshops, which will allow participants to explore some of the speaker topics in greater depth. We hope that this will enable individual attendees to ‘pick and mix’ a programme for themselves to make use of every minute of the day and go home bursting with ideas and contacts.

The keynote address will be given by Professor Arthur Lipman (Professor of Pharmacotherapy, University of Health Science Center, Salt Lake City, Utah, US). His topic will be the pharmacist’s contribution to effective pain management – surely something that has touched most pharmacists one way or another. The speakers for the main programme are drawn from all over Europe and are all experts in their own fields. Many have written for HPE  in the past but some are new faces. Some of the topics are ongoing issues where we seek to bring you the latest information, and some are new developments that are likely to influence the shape of services in future.

To chair the two streams, we have invited Dr David Cousins, (Senior Head of Patient Safety for Safe Medication Practice and Medical Devices, NHS England) whose work has made medication safety a headline issue in healthcare, and Dr Norman Morrow (Former Chief Pharmaceutical Officer Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, Belfast, UK) who made progressive pharmacy services in Northern Ireland effective and affordable. Full details of all our speakers can be found at the HPE Live website: www.hpe-live.com.

Finally, because we are conscious of the fact that time and expense often prevent people from attending meetings, we have made HPE Live a free event with a one-day programme. We are proud to have forged relationships with so many professional bodies and to have assembled such a distinguished panel of speakers. We look forward to seeing many of you at HPE Live on 29 October.