Innovation and Service Development nomination: CODEMISUSED commended for developing real solutions for real problems with CARA Pharmacy Group
The CODEMISUSED EU FP7 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Industry Academia Partnerships and Pathways (IAPP) international research project, in collaboration with its Irish industry pharmacy partner, CARA Pharmacy Group, were proudly nominated for the MSD Innovation & Service Development – Chain Award at The Irish Pharmacy Awards 2016.
The MSD Innovation & Service Development (Chain) Award category gives recognition to those community pharmacists and their teams working within the chain pharmacy sector, that successfully demonstrate continuous innovation at the forefront of the pharmacy market; showing enthusiasm for developing community pharmacy in Ireland and leading the way for others to follow.
Finalists for this Award category were chosen based on their core competence and innovation in offering patients a bespoke service with clear objectives, improving the reputation of the industry overall.
It was noted that CODEMISUSED has commendably shown that innovative practices can be adopted by Irish community pharmacists who are committed to improving outcomes for patient care, regardless of pharmacy size or location. Real solutions for real problems have been designed using a collaborative teamwork approach.
The Irish Pharmacy Awards 2016 took place in the Hilton DoubleTree Dublin attracting over 600 pharmacists, pharmacy staff, leading members of pharmacy academia and representatives from the pharmaceutical sector.
Margaret Walsh, CODEMISUSED Project Manager stated: “We are absolutely delighted to be working with CARA Pharmacy Group on this exciting project, and we are really honoured and proud to be nominated for the MSD Innovation & Service Development (Chain) Award. It is a great achievement for our project and CARA Pharmacy Group”.
According to Dr Marie Claire Van Hout, Principal Investigator & Project Coordinator for the project, who has over 15 years research and practice experience in the substance misuse and public health field, noted: “Given the difficulties in estimating the extent of this ‘respectable form of addiction’, CODEMISUSED is intended to promote the rational use of codeine products amongst the public as well as those involved in prescribing and dispensing. Ultimately we intend to design several innovations to support and educate customers, and empower pharmacies as custodians of codeine medicines. This EU-funded cross-border inter-sectoral project is driven by the importance of having academia and industry working side by side to improve patient outcomes”.
In response to the nomination, Padraig McGuinness, MPSI, Lead Researcher and Pharmacy Services Manager at the CARA Pharmacy Group said: “Codeine misuse remains a sensitive issue for pharmacists and for many patients throughout Ireland and there is little to no support services or resources available to patients, pharmacists or prescribers. As a pharmacy team which continuously values patient care and safety above all else, CARA is very excited to be involved with the CODEMISUSED project and hopes the research results will ultimately improve the care patients receive from Irish pharmacy as a whole”.
The CODEMISUSED project has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013 under grant agreement no 611736.
About the CODEMISUSED project
Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) is leading the €2.04 million CODEMISUSED project, which is funded under the EU FP7 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Academia Partnerships and Pathways strand and has been accepted onto the register of EC funded studies on the ENCePP register of the EMA. The inter-sectoral CODEMISUSED project team are committed to improving the lives of those who struggle with codeine addiction, which represents a wide scale issue for Irish Pharmacists – every pharmacist in Ireland is persistently faced with its consequence and placed in ethical and professional dilemmas in its supply. Using a truly innovative approach of combining the best academics in the field both nationally and internationally together with industry practice experts in community pharmacies across Ireland, the UK and South Africa, CODEMISUSED is defining, quantifying and finding a solution to the “respectable addiction” that is codeine addiction.
CODEMISUSED has successfully enhanced and embedded the interdisciplinary links, knowledge exchange and the academic-industry collaboration between the 6 project partners (3 academic and 3 industry) across the 3 jurisdictions (Ireland, United Kingdom, South Africa). It aims to investigate the extent and nature of codeine use, therapeutic and non-therapeutic misuse and codeine dependence in three countries and from a variety of perspectives. Data will be used to inform the design of protective mechanisms for pharmacies to be able to track, monitor, support and refer for treatment including pharmacy based brief interventions, risk management and customer monitoring systems, continuing professional development training; and design of specific clinical and community pharmacy treatment protocols.
CODEMISUSED has fruitfully established a sustainable high quality research cluster capable of attracting funding for future ventures which are intended to include pharmaceutical companies manufacturing and designing codeine based products. Of notable importance is that this approach will not only help in the field of codeine addiction but these skills are transferable to other areas of pharmacy practice, further endorsement for the project’s approach.
The recent nomination for the MSD Innovation & Service Development (Chain) Award is further evidence of the ground-breaking and cutting-edge approach adopted by the CODEMISUSED project and CARA Pharmacy Group that makes them distinctive in terms of their exceptional work in the area of codeine use, misuse and dependence. CODEMISUSED is underpinned by high impact academic research and industry best practice that has resulted in a two-way knowledge exchange process between academia and industry, leading to improved health outcomes, and a greater level of efficiency and effectiveness of service development and an overall improved patient experience.
WIT, as lead partner, is also collaborating closely with other partners comprising King’s College London, UK; Medical Research Council, South Africa; Weldrick’s Pharmacy, UK; and The Local Choice Pharmacy, South Africa. Dr Van Hout’s research colleagues at WIT encompass Prof John Wells, Dr Michael Bergin, Dr Martina Gooney and Dr Michelle Foley.
Launched in 2013, this 48 month project is supported by an Expert Advisory Panel with representatives of the European Medicines Agency, European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Pharmaceutical Society of South Africa and Royal Pharmaceutical Society UK. This highly acclaimed project has the full support of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland who are following the results with great interest.
See: www.codemisused.org
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