This year’s RPS conference was on the 4th and 5th September and PRUK were delighted to attend this annual event. PRUK were involved in many different aspects of the conference, from having a stand in the main exhibition centre to running a satellite session showcasing some recent research funded by PRUK.
PRUK Stand
The PRUK stand was shared with the RPS Research team. With the deadlines for applications for our 2016 grants and to submit abstracts for HSRPP rapidly approaching, it is a busy time for PRUK and this was reflected in the many conversations with conference attendees. There were also many questions on the support available to students looking at getting into research and becoming a peer reviewer!
Pharmacy Practice Award
At the Awards dinner on Sunday evening, RPS Chief Scientist Jayne Lawrence presented Dr Debi Bhattacharya with the Pharmacy Practice Research Award. Jayne praised PRUK’s commitment to excellence in research and on receiving the award, Debi said,
“Research success is underpinned by excellence of the team; I would like to take this opportunity to thank my research students, colleagues, and patient and public representatives who have worked with me to deliver high quality research. As an academic I feel that I get to have my cake and eat it. I am privileged to have a job that supports me to learn, be creative, question the paradigm and potentially make a difference to society. To get recognition for doing something that I passionately enjoy really is the icing on top of that cake.”
Dr Debi Bhattacharya with Martin Astbury, RPS President
As part of her award, Dr Bhattacharya gave the PRUK Annual Lecture on Monday. Her talk was introduced by Steve Churton, a PRUK Trustee and Vice Chair of the West Leicestershire Clinical Commissioning Group, who said,
“I am delighted to present the Pharmacy Practice Award to Debi. It is well deserved recognition for her excellent research on medical adherence interventions.”
Dr Bhattacharya’s talk focused on medical adherence and was well received on social media. See her full slide deck for more information on her lecture dr-bhattacharya-lecture-rps-2016
Satellite session
Also on the Monday, PRUK ran a satellite session at the early time of 8am. Despite the early hour this was well attended and Steve Churton, who introduced the session, said,
“Unlicensed medicines can cause substantial challenges to pharmacists, prescribers and patients. I am delighted that PRUK and the EMULSION study are exploring these and their satellite session at the RPS Conference was both informative and provided tangible solutions.”
For more information see the accompanying slide pack specials-rps-slides-september-2016.
Research poster
PRUK was delighted to see University of Reading Dr Wing-Man Lau’s poster on “Exploring community pharmacists’ knowledge, attitude and self-reported patient counselling behaviour in relation to the use of topical corticosteroids in atopic eczema”. Dr Lau was awarded the Leverhulme award in 2012 by PRUK to fund this work and the study shows that while most respondents’ knowledge was sound, they were less likely to provide information on the safety of corticosteroids in their practice.
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