EPSA Newsletter
Bringing pharmacy knowledge and students together.
Volume 25 | Edition 3 | April 2018 www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online
Learn about our new platforms LLeaP Page EPSA Science Blog
EPSA Interns Living and working in Brussels
Annual Reception Mobility in Europe
EPSA Summer University Izmir, Turkey 23rd - 29th July
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Table of contents 4
Presidential Words
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EPSA House Project
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EPSA Interns
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PR Subcommittee - who are they?
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AR follow-up
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Vaccines: Victims of their own success
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AC Topic Introduction
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Science Blog
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EPSA Trainers Board
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Methodology Booklet
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Educational Calendar
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TWINNETs that happened this mandate
Editor’s words Dear reader,
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External Representation
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EHSAS
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Alumni Project
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Alumni Advisory Board
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Alumni: Where are they now?
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Map of Europe
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Events Calendar
It is with great pleasure that I present you the third and last edition of the EPSA Newsletter of the 2017/2018 mandate! “The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.”, and I’ve been the pilot of this publication since the Autumn Assembly in Czech Republic. And now, here we are, at our biggest event, the Annual Congress in the Netherlands! EPSA is a network that keeps growing each and every single year. In the striving towards our vision: “reach and engage every single pharmacy student in Europe to collaborate on the development of the future of pharmacy and healthcare together”, in this edition you can read all about EPSA and our work in interprofessional collaboration, which in my opinion took new heights during this mandate. Having an EPSA House in Brussels, a safe haven for the EPSA Team, greatly contributed to that, and so you can also read more about this important project. Emerging from our interest in interprofessional collaboration, this edition of the Newsletter covers the EPSA Annual Reception and a new and exciting event that will take place at the European Parliament! If you want to have a closer look, I recommend you to read the article by Dorothea Dalig, EPSA Vice President of European Affairs, on page 10. On the following pages of this brand new edition of the Newsletter, you will find EPSA’s new projects, like the EPSA Science Blog and the Methodology Booklet and a peek behind our “hidden” workforce! The Design Board, Editorial Board and even the Trainers Board. For further interest on our latest achievements, do not miss the article about our mobility project - TWINNET that is not only expanding the EPSA network but also helping students to develop themselves by exchanging ideas, concerns, and practices. I would like to end by thanking all the authors of this Newsletter edition, the Editorial Board, the Public Relations Department and all the other teamies that helped me through my mandate. To the reader, I invite you to turn the page and get inspired! Yours in EPSA,
Special thanks to: Leon Rižner, Mihai Nițoiu (Design and Editing) Editorial Board: Elona A. Xhemaili, Carina Salsas, Sean Quay
Cláudia Ferreira EPSA Vice President of Public Relations 2017-2018
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European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
Dear reader, Fellow EPSA enthusiasts, This is the last edition of the EPSA Newsletter this mandate. With it, the version twenty-five ends its journey around Europe and through the hands of many enthusiastic readers. Also, this is the last Newsletter of the 2017/2018 mandate, and my last Presidential words. However, I refuse to look at this Newsletter as something that is concluding the mandate. I am rather framing it as a list of many possible beginnings for you, the reader. EPSA is offering many, many activities which you can take part in, and what better opportunity is there than the 41st Annual Congress? At the biggest EPSA event, more than 350 students from all over Europe are gathered, in order to learn about Pharmacoeconomics and the affordability of healthcare, meet new people, exchange good practices from their member associations and studies, and meet other cultures. The rich educational programme will make sure you walk out of the castle in Baarlo more knowledgeable than before, and the social programme ensures an unforgettable experience – meeting many new people, networking with speakers from the educational programme, and again exploring new cultures. Here, you have a unique opportunity to get an insight into our projects and learn about the internal work of our association, by attending – the General Assembly, taking place from Wednesday to Saturday. It is a great platform for you to get to know all of our projects at once, in case you are interested in that. Or are you interested in organising a Twinnet? Contact the representative of the country you want to organise it with and make a preliminary arrangement during the social programme or coffee breaks! Interested in becoming a part of the EPSA Team? The elections are taking place on Thursday and Friday, open for everyone to demonstrate why they would be of added value to our association. All in all, this mandate has been great, and it is concluding with an amazing event. Have fun, learn a lot, eat enough fruit and vegetables, and don’t forget – sleep can be replaced, experiences cannot! It will be a pleasure meeting you all!
Črtomir Fleisinger EPSA President 2017-2018
Change the future. Push boundaries. At Roche, our success is built on innovation, curiosity, and diversity - multiplied by 91,747 professionals in 100 countries. By challenging conventional thinking and ourselves, we’ve become one of the world’s leading research-focused healthcare companies. Are you ready to add practical experience to your course of study? An internship (3 to 12 months) at Roche can be the perfect place to find out how your discipline looks in action. Interesting projects are taking place throughout the entire company and dedicated students from these fields of study are always in demand: • Pharmaceutical Sciences • Pharmaceutical Technology • Natural Sciences Bring along your ideas and your ability to research, develop, plan and organise. The next step is yours. careers.roche.ch
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European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
EPSA House Project EMSA in our turf. Have you ever participated in a soft skills training, in which you heard about the theory of the stages a team goes through? I always thought that this theory was not very practical, but at some point I realized that maybe it was something we were going through without understanding it. That was when I moved to the EPSA House in Brussels! The first stage of the theory is Forming and it refers to the point where the group gets together. My name is Vagelis, I am a medical student from Greece and an active member of the European Medical Students’ Association (EMSA). This mandate, I hold the position of Permanent Officer in EMSA, which means I am the only person from the association based in Brussels and working for the Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME). I moved to the heart of Europe and through a series of coincidences I rented a room in the EPSA House, where I soon met my beloved roommates, Črtomir, Dorothea and Patrick. And this was us coming together to live an unforgettable experience! The next phase is the one every trainer tells you to deal with very carefully, because in this one most teams fail - the Storming phase. For me, it was hard to get used to having roommates. I had lived on my own since I got into medical school and sometimes I just enjoy being alone in my room, listening to music or watching
Vagelis Papageorgiou EMSA Permanent Officer, 2017-2018
a TV series. I felt that the EPSA people - as I used to call them in my head - had their own dynamics, since they knew each other already. I was always thinking that for them it was easier to make jokes with each other or go out and have fun, though these thoughts were keeping me away from them and from actually getting to know them in depth. However, as time progressed I felt more and more relaxed living in the EPSA house. I was actually having fun! I started sharing more and learning more about them, and soon after this Norming phase, we moved to the Performing phase! I have to say that this phase was amazing. I looked forward to go back home, talk with my roomates, share things about our days and laugh with our inside jokes. I looked for opportunities to spend more time with them, go out and drink, or stay in the house doing slammers (if you don’t know what that is, ask Črtomir). You are here in Brussels - so far away from your country - and you know that you are not alone, because you have people you share the same experiences with, the same living conditions, the same problems and thrills. This is what makes this experience really unique! Another side effect of me living in this house, is that I get to know more about EPSA. We always talk about
interprofessional education and collaboration, but I was really lucky to experience this first hand. I had the chance to know more about another student association, their strengths and their weaknesses, what they were doing, which could be implemented in EMSA and vice versa. Now, I have a better understanding of what it means to be a student advocate outside the field of medicine. On the other hand, I am realizing more and more how we can work together to achieve our common goals. The peak of this interaction was during the EPSA Annual Reception, where I had the chance to meet many members of this amazing association. That weekend made me feel like I was starting all over again and was joining a new association as a newbie. I had the same enthusiasm and was eager to make the most out of the social events and learn more about everyone I met! Of course, I should not forget to add that Brussels is a nice city to explore. It gives you opportunities that you may not have anywhere else, and I am really sad that my mandate is coming to an end. But I have to say that for now I am really happy to call the EPSA house my home and Črt, Doro and Pat my friends!
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EPSA Interns
What do they do in Brussels? The internship at the European CanCer Organisation (ECCO) is new this year and it started in November 2017. ECCO is the only multidisciplinary organisation that connects and responds to all stakeholders in oncology Europe-wide. This EPSA internship includes tasks like monitoring key policy developments and initiatives that are of relevance to cancer organisations at European level and reviewing and responding to policy consultations in the area of health and education policy of the EU. It is expected from the EPSA intern to make representations at policy-relevant meetings and events, in respect to the cancer organisations interest and assist with the production of policy-related communication material, including social media. In addition to that, conducting research in areas such as quality of cancer care, integration of cancer care, access to innovation, oncology workforce concerns and conferencerelated activities, are daily tasks. Beyond the internship, life in the Brussels is an experience on its own. As the EPSA House is the home base of the EPSA permanent officers, we spend quite some time there, so a comfortable atmosphere is required. Luckily, this is working out just fine. In addition, we established to make L’Autobus our second living room! Patrick Jongeleen EPSA Vice President of External Relations, 2017-2018
Since the beginning of September, I have been living in Brussels and enjoying my time at the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP), part time being busy with the internship, part time with EPSA. The internship is in place since 2012, with the first intern in the office being David Preece, Secretary General 2012/2013. Since then, EAHP has hosted 8 interns from EPSA. The internship includes media monitoring, supporting the EAHP policy office with consultations and other documentation related to their projects (currently focusing on Common Training Framework and Statement Implementation Learning Collaborative Centres), promoting student activities EAHP organises in collaboration with EPSA, assisting with preparations for the EAHP Congress, among others. The office has a pleasant working atmosphere, with all the other employees of the secretariat being very supportive!
I love the international feeling and the closeness to European Institutions that Brussels brings. There are amazing food opportunities; countless restaurants, coffee shops, food trucks and markets and they all benefit from the international atmosphere. And the architecture is pretty unique, wildly mixed and my personal favourite: Art Nouveau buildings. The weather is… well… there is weather. But enough Brussels praise... I work for the Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union, EPSA’s oldest partner in Brussels. Its structure is very similar to EPSA: as an umbrella association, PGEU’s members are the national associations and professional bodies of community pharmacists, in 32 European countries and, therefore, they represent 400 000 community pharmacists. I do a lot of media monitoring, that means looking at different online sources and searching for news that are relevant for community pharmacists. I manage PGEU’s Twitter and Facebook account and also attend meetings and policy events on behalf of PGEU. Just like EPSA, PGEU works a lot with best practice sharing. I take care of PGEU’s factsheets and support the secretariat with working group meetings and their General Assembly by taking minutes, preparing documents and helping with logistics. I learn a lot there and bring that knowledge to the EPSA Team, so we can all benefit from it.
Dorothea Dalig EPSA Vice President of External Affairs, 2017-2018
It is my first time working from 9AM to 5PM, and it is not that bad. After work, we cook dinner together in the EPSA House, talk about our day and share our frustrations regarding things we may have faced throughout the day. Our days are usually concluded in l’Autobus, relaxing over a glass of Belgian beer!
Črtomir Fleisinger EPSA President, 2017-2018
Top left to bottom right: Audrey van Coillie, Antonio Grasso, Dorothea Dalig, Jamie Wilkinson, Jurate Svarcaite, Carolina Martinez-Berganza
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European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
The Public Relations Subcommittee
Who’s behind the proofreading and designing?
The EPSA Newsletter, the EPSA Students’ Science Publication, Educational Booklets for congresses, and more and more publications. What about all the designs for Public Health Campaigns, and other materials? Yes, the four members are very hard working, but they are not super-heroes (although they might seem, from time to time). We have our normal student life, and so we need some help! Everything that goes public, has been created or checked by the PR Department, but as I said, sometimes we can’t keep up with the amount of work we receive from the other departments (we still love you though!). And that is why the PR Subcommittee exists! It consists of six members in total - three from the Editorial My name is Elona and I live in Macedonia. I am a pharmacy student and at the same time, I do pursue English Language and Literature studies. Becoming a part of EPSA was fortuitous! I was scrolling down my Facebook feed where I saw an open call for PR subcommittee. I sent my application without any hesitation since I was looking for an opportunity to change “the game”. Not knowing much about the association and in the meantime not being aware of how potential EPSA is, I joined the team. At first, I was a little insecure about what I was doing. Later on, working with Claudia and the team was amazing. Being an editor gave me the opportunity to be informed about all the activities happening in the association, know every article or publication before it
Hello, my name is Vitória Sil Machado de Carvalho. I speak English fluently, and I have working experience in my field, but the desire to branch out into other more fulfilling activities with a more administrative and commercial nature began this year, when I was asked at the current working place to fulfill tasks of that nature.
Board and three from the Design Board-. The PR Department would be nothing without our Subcommittee, so I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the members in it! You were truly amazing throughout the whole mandate! And secondly, I would like to encourage YOU, to be the next member in the PR Subcommittee. If you are a “grammar nazi”, or simply like designing, why not apply?
Cláudia Ferreira EPSA Vice President of Public Relations, 2017-2018
even came out and elaborate my language skills. Whereas being a part of this association has broadened my perspective, it turned out to be much more than I expected! I encourage every student out there to challenge themselves, grab the chance to learn more and be a part of something huge. Today, I can definitely say that I am extremely captivated by EPSA spirit and everything around this association as it pursues its goals every day! I would have never made a better decision than being a part of it! Elona Xhemaili Member of the PR Subcommittee, 2017-2018
week, internship in community Pharmacy. Since I have a background in both Design and Pharmaceutical Sciences, I can contribute with a dual approach to different tasks! Thanks for taking the time to get to know me!
As of October 2016, until June 2017, I was employed in a fashion accessories manufacturer located in Braga. I am the detainer of a licentiate degree in Design since 2015; specializing in technical flat vectorial drawing, for manufacturing purposes. I also have professional Graphic Design experience. Currently I am finishing a six month long, forty hour per
Vitória Sil Machado de Carvalho Member of the PR Subcommittee, 2017-2018
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My name is Inês and I am a Pharmacy student from Lisbon, Portugal. Currently, I am a member of the PR Subcommittee of EPSA, more precisely, of the Design Board. Even though this is my last year as a student, I am 100% sure that applying for this job was one of the best decisions I could’ve made. More than pharmacy, design has always been a passion of mine. So, when I saw the open call for the Design Board, I had no doubts: I had to take a chance. Being part of EPSA has been a marvelous experience! As an EPSA designer, you get to explore your creativity and take it to another level. In here, you’re not just one more, you really are part of something bigger than words!
Inês Grazina Member of the PR Subcommittee, 2017-2018
Hi fellow readers! My name is Sean! Originally from Malaysia, I pursued my degree in Pharmacy in the UK. Currently, I live and work in Bristol, South West England as a community pharmacist after having spent a year in hospital pharmacy. As an editor, I proofread the materials being circulated for any of the activities in EPSA and make sure the message of the text comes through efficiently for your reading. The main reason for me wanting to join the EPSA PR subcommittee is being able to work with a group of bright, energetic people doing something I love- communicating
Hello! My name is Carina and I am a pharmacy student from Lisbon, Portugal! Becoming a member of EPSA’s Editorial Board was not something I had ever thought about until I saw the open call for it, but right then I knew it was the perfect thing for me to do! I have always been very passionate about languages and grammar (and quite OCD about it sometimes :P), so getting to proofread texts on a regular basis is something I enjoy very much. In addition, I got to learn a great deal about EPSA and be
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Hello there! I’m Mateusz and I’m from Poland. I’ve decided to join the Design Board after my 3rd EPSA event and the main reason of doing it was great team with people who I love to work with. In the first place I’m a pharmacist but in my free time I want to become a creator, an artist, a designer. SInce I can remember, I’ve always been strongly interested in art and photography. It is also why I’ve started to work digital graphics. EPSA gives me that opportunity to learn new things and teaches me how to improve my workflow in the team. The only thing I regret is that I haven’t started working with the team earlier :) Mateusz Stajner Member of the PR Subcommittee, 2017-2018
health to a larger group. The only way I would describe the essence of EPSA is diversity! Somewhere you feel accepted and part of. With so many members from so many different countries, it’s the best place to kick-start a global pharmacy career!
Sean Quay Member of the PR Subcommittee, 2017-2018
part of a very inspiring team, that never fails to maintain a professional and yet lighthearted working environment. Being part of EPSA can really broaden your perception and knowledge on many areas! So if there is something you are interested in or curious about, don’t hesitate to get involved. Carina Salsas Member of the PR Subcommittee, 2017-2018
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Events
European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
EPSA Annual Reception 2018 Outcomes of the discussion On the 8th of March 2018, EPSA organised its 17th Annual Reception on the topic “The impact of mobility on pharmaceutical education, research and profession”. The event was hosted by Lieve Wierinck, a Belgian Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from the group ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe). Since she is the only MEP that is also a pharmacist, she has a special connection to EPSA. MEP Lieve Wierinck opened the event by pointing out the importance of free movement of knowledge, ideas and people as a core European value and mentioning that healthcare students tend to have fewer mobility opportunities. She offered ideas on how to improve the situation (increased awareness of the students, support from their faculties, increased funding) and explained the benefits of mobility for healthcare professionals. The next part of the Annual Reception is traditionally the EPSA presentation, to make sure that everybody in the room (and online) knows who we are and what we do. This year, Črtomir Fleisinger presented EPSA’s past and present work in the field of mobility. Mobility is one of EPSA’s core advocacy initiatives. We promote existing mobility programmes and advocate for the unification of the pharmaceutical curricula to facilitate European exchange possibilities!
EPSA’s past work in the area includes the Lisbon Statement on diploma equivalency in Europe, a report on pharmaceutical education together with IPSF (International Pharmaceutical Students’ Federation) and involvement in changes to the EU Directive on the Recognition of Professional Qualifications (RPQ Directive). Right now, we are working to increase funding to improve mobility and support the Erasmusx10 initiative. We discussed mobility with the EPSA members during the 54th EPSA General Assembly and concluded that in addition to everything mentioned before, we need a change in mentality towards mobility, both from students and teaching staff, and to support more classes in English. After that, I invited the panelists to give their input speeches. We started with Lloyd Anthony Huitson, Assistant Policy Officer, European Commission, DG Education and Culture. The Erasmus+ programme is very successful but there are still problems with learning agreements, grade transfers, the course catalogue and recognition of curricula. He explained the concept of ‘’mobility windows’’: periods in the curricula that are agreed upon from the very beginning of studies and that allow going abroad without delays in the studies. Future goals are the recognition of diplomas, joint curriculum
development by European universities, the implementation of mobility windows and the European student card. Our next speaker João Pinto, President, European Students Network (ESN) explained his belief that every student should participate in at least one mobility opportunity. Studies show that mobile students are more employable, more likely to become entrepreneurs, have an increased cultural awareness and improved academic performances, focus more on improving society as a whole and are more likely to vote in the European elections. The main barriers to Erasmus+ are the lack of mutual recognition, the accommodation challenges, the inclusion of students with disabilities, and the need for visas in certain cases. The lack of trust towards other universities and the lack of awareness are still problematic and he called on students to advocate for mobility on the local and national level. Stephan Jahnke, Senior Policy Officer, European University Foundation (EUF), stressed the importance of strong alumni networks and access to information. He complimented EPSA on the Students’ Guide, as the European Union does not have a public database for Erasmus+ related information. The Erasmus+ digitalisation was currently underway including the Erasmus Without Paper initiative and the Erasmus+ App. He explained that the curricula design should allow increased mobility and result in comparable programmes and that we should collaborate on joint statements based on reliable data. Bernhard Zaglmayer, Legal and Policy Desk Officer, European Commission, DG GROW, pointed out that the implementation of identical curricula had been previously approached, but a common denominator could not be found. For this reason, it was decided to proceed with a comparable education initiative, which is mentioned in the RPQ Directive. A minimal harmonisation of the pharmaceutical studies was already in place and is being facilitated by the European professional card. Luigi Martini BSc (Hons), PhD, MBA, Past President, European Industrial Pharmacists Group (EIPG), continued by stressing the importance of focusing
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on the patients and the information the patients need. Future professionals need the ability to manage decentralised intellectual capital resources, to work in joint ventures and across divisions, cultures and countries, to integrate an understanding of intellectual property laws, to spur creativity while managing commercially, to have the knowledge and insight on decision-making dynamics of payers, the expertise in the functioning and decision-making of regulatory agencies and the human resources skills to help transform pharmaceutical companies. It is important to embrace mobility as it improves the students’ and professionals’ confidence. He explained his dream is that this would eventually lead to pharmacists as CEOs of major pharmaceutical companies, through their improved self-belief and confidence. The last speaker Franjo Čaić, EU Policy Associate, European Government & Public Affairs, Merck & European Health Parliament presented his extensive experience with different mobility programmes and advocated for the unified curricula as this would ensure that students taking part in mobility opportunities do not need to prolong their studies. He pointed out that mobility
Events
facilitates the professional and personal development and it is beneficial to work with people with different backgrounds to develop new, innovative initiatives. After the input speeches, we had a stimulating and active discussion! The panelists agreed that it is important to learn different languages in order to be able to communicate with each other and with the patients which are reflected in the QPR Directive. We agreed on the importance of updated curricula. Professors have a moral obligation to instruct on current, not outdated, topics. The panelists pointed out that patients deserve the same quality of healthcare in all countries but every European country has its own pharmacy-related regulation. It is therefore difficult to develop common European frameworks. This could be improved through a change of mindset which would allow for higher mobility, resulting in learning from one another and developing together. Mobility is a European problem but a national competence. The European Union can, thus, encourage the member states to collaborate in this field. Other discussed topics included the mobility opportunities
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that are held in post-graduate and PhD programmes, internships and volunteering/humanitarian work. EPSA is currently working on a position paper on mobility and collaborating with other associations, like the Erasmus Student Network and the European University Foundation. We will continue to advocate for increased mobility, a modern curriculum and diverse learning opportunities. We still have a long way to go but we only just started! This event is another step in the right direction and we are hoping that together we may reach the goal of accessible and beneficial mobility for all!
Dorothea Dalig EPSA Vice President of European Affairs 2017-2018
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European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
https://epsa-online.org/LLeaP/
LLeaP is EPSA’s Lifelong Learning Platform, a platform that promotes and challenges your mindset as a lifelong learner! Here you will have an idea of some skills to develop to become a great pharmacist, but there are more! Anything that you learn and you find useful will be considered. For that, you just need to fill the submission form and we will take care of the rest. For every activity submitted, you will receive an award. Collect those awards to show everyone that you are evolving and developing. There will be some challenges for you and your friends in the platform that will give you extra awards, so keep up with the news. At the end of the year, you will get a certificate that will certificate your participation in this platform and the submission of the activities you submitted throughout the year. LLeaP is EPSA’s Lifelong Learning Platform, a platform that promotes and challenges your mindset as a lifelong learner! Here you will have an idea of some skills to develop to become a great pharmacist, but there are more! Anything that you learn and you find useful will be considered. For that, you just need to fill the submission form and we will take care of the rest. For every activity submitted, you will receive an award. Collect those awards to show everyone that you are evolving and developing. There will be some challenges for you and your friends in the platform that will give you extra awards, so keep up with the news.
www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online
Education
Vaccines: Victims of their own success Immunisation is a public health triumph, yet vaccination rates are still too low. How can we improve vaccine confidence, tackle complacency and make vaccination more convenient? In the middle of the 20th century, highlyinfectious diseases such as measles and pertussis were rampant in Europe. For most children, catching one of these diseases was a source of misery. For some, it was fatal. Just imagine the impact in a typical school, where every few years an outbreak took a handful of pupils’ names off the register. As each class graduates, they recall one or two children who were lost to a dreaded disease. Then came vaccines. Advances in biological understanding and rising technological know-how led to the mass production of safe and effective vaccines. Governments soon began offering several vaccines to the public free of charge. What followed was a phenomenon that is as close to a medical miracle as you can get without leaving the realm of science. Thanks to vaccines, along with improved sanitation and healthcare, the prevalence of vaccine-preventable diseases plummeted. Death rates for most diseases were reduced to almost zero. Public immunisation programmes became a beacon of hope for those who see science as part of the solution to humanity’s problems. In 1980, it got even better. Smallpox became the first human disease to be eradicated. Following an unprecedented global campaign to bring vaccines to people in every corner of the world, a once dreaded disease was gone for good. Keen to repeat the success, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative was launched in the late 1980s and, a little later, the 53 countries in the WHO European region set out to eliminate measles and rubella. It was a good time for optimists. Alas, the march to a disease-free world was not so simple. It was not just that we faced difficult foes – adaptable and highly-infectious viruses and bacteria. The biggest challenge was human nature.
The Three Cs
and stories for the general public.
Globally, measles killed 2.6 million people in 1980. This fell to 73,000 in 2014. Is this success? It means many people are alive today who would otherwise have died. But it’s hard to celebrate: 73,000 people could fill Manchester United’s football stadium.
Fake news and anti-vaccine campaigns predate the internet. And, while those who opt out are jeopardising herd immunity, obsessing about this part of the problem sometimes comes at the expense of tackling the third C – convenience.
Many of these deaths are in the developing world, but Europe’s effort to wipe out the disease is also struggling. Thousands of cases are recorded every year with dozens of avoidable deaths. The measles vaccine is free to the public in European countries and is not expensive for governments. What on earth is going wrong?
The role of pharmacies
The answer is the Three Cs: complacency, confidence and convenience. Vaccines have become the victims of their own success. The decline in rubella, diphtheria, pertussis, measles and so on meant that their menace was soon forgotten. A new generation of health professionals graduated who had never seen these diseases. Parents exhibited ‘survivor bias’ by recalling that they had survived measles, so it must not be so bad. The urgency of eliminating these diseases faded fast.
Most people don’t have strong views on vaccination: it’s just another task for busy parents to incorporate into their hectic schedule. A WHO project looking at orthodox Jewish communities, where large families were the norm, found that measles outbreaks were due to low vaccine uptake. But the key finding was that parents were not anti-vaccination, they just found it difficult to drag seven children on a bus to the clinic.
Confidence is also a problem. While most people still get all of their vaccines on time, every time, some opt out. A global survey by the London-based Vaccine Confidence Project showed people in Europe are among the most sceptical about the need for vaccines. Many of those who are ‘vaccine hesitant’ cite concerns about vaccine safety or effectiveness. In France, 41% of respondents did not agree that vaccines are safe. This is the country that gave us Pasteur and hosts a large vaccine production sector. The internet and social media have a case to answer in how fake news about vaccines have spread. The Vaccine Safety Net, a WHO-endorsed network of websites with authoritative information about vaccines, is working to ensure that the public has access to high-quality information on vaccine safety. This means creating and sharing evidence-based and interesting articles
WHO Europe’s Tailored Immunization Programme is one of several efforts to understand the barriers to vaccination. For some, fears about the MMR or HPV vaccines may be fuelled by false information, but for others, access is key.
The solution? Make it easier for them by bringing the clinic to them. This is where pharmacists can also play a role. Several European countries now offer community pharmacy-based vaccination. In Ireland, pharmacists have been offering flu vaccination for more than five years, often reaching people who would not otherwise have been vaccinated. Vaccines against pneumococcal disease and shingles can now also be offered by suitablytrained pharmacists in Ireland. Wiping out infectious diseases is the ultimate challenge in the community and public health. Let’s all ask ourselves what we can do to address the Three Cs in our professional and personal lives.
Gary Finnegan Editor of Vaccines Today and member of the Advisory Board of the WHO Vaccine Safety Net
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Education
European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
41st EPSA Annual Congress Pharmacoeconomics and the Affordability of Healthcare Welcome to the 41st EPSA Annual Congress! Another year has passed and EPSA’s largest event is on the agenda again. An educational programme, offering an increased number of speeches, workshops and trainings, has been constructed around the topic of “Pharmacoeconomics and the Affordability of Healthcare”. The two-day symposium will feature speeches from 8 professionals, with topics ranging from the introduction to pharmacoeconomics, to health technology assessment (HTA) and market access. The end of each symposia day will feature a panel discussion where participants will be able to pose any questions to the panel, which will consist of the symposium speakers and some of EPSA’s Board of Trustees members. The rest of the educational programme will feature workshops and trainings that will be organised for smaller groups in parallel. Workshops aim to broaden the participants’ knowledge in the topic of the event and other areas, including EPSA’s projects and activities, while trainings educate the participants in soft skills needed to become a successful healthcare professional.
For this reason, the topics of this years Annual Congress was selected. It will be tackled from two main viewpoints, pharmacoeconomics and the affordability/accessibility of healthcare. Abstracts of all sessions, meaning symposia, workshops and trainings, are available in the 41st EPSA Annual Congress Educational Booklet, accessible to everyone on the EPSA website. Make sure to read it and find out more about the topic as well as the event itself! If you are interested in other topics, feel free to propose them to the EPSA Team who will take them into account when discussing possible topics for future EPSA events. So, to not give more away, make sure to tune into the symposia livestream if you are unable to attend the event. After the event, educational outcomes will be released for participants to reflect on and retain their knowledge and for everyone else to be able to learn about this topic as well. The educational outcomes will be available on EPSA’s website and upon request at vp.education@epsa-online.org.
Do you wonder why pharmacoeconomics and the affordability of healthcare was selected as the topic of the 41st EPSA Annual Congress? EPSA aims to educate its members on topics important for their future professional lives that are not widely present in the current European pharmaceutical curricula. We take the students’ interests into account as well to choose a topic appealing to students of different knowledge levels.
Eva Shannon Schiffrer EPSA Vice President of Education 2017-2018
www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online
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EPSA Science Blog 1, 2, 3, Let’s Science! The mandate 2017/2018 is slowly coming to an end and in this period of time many of us take a look at the past months to see what we did and what projects would we still like to implement by the very last goodbye from our positions. The Science Coordinator’s portfolio has been successfully developing through the years and the increasing engagement from students and their need for more science and science-related activities have been a high motivation to do even more! Let’s be honest, some are more into science than others and EPSA is providing different science projects and activities in which students can find something for themselves, no matter the scale of science enthusiasm. The biggest science enthusiasts have probably performed scientific research by themselves and those are the ones who are taking advantage of opportunities that EPSA creates for them - EPSA Students’ Science Publication (ESSP) and Science Day. Students who like to read interesting articles are always welcome to stop by at the EPSA Science! Monthly and those who like to learn in a more interactive way, join Science Excursions and Science Workshops at major EPSA events!
Even though these are quite a lot of projects, EPSA wanted to take a step further.
Putting words into action or, better said, putting my predecessor’s idea into a whole new project I am more than excitedly happy to announce that EPSA Science Blog is launched! EPSA Science Blog is an online platform that gathers all the EPSA Science projects together in one place and offers more for those who want it! What is ‘’more’’? EPSA Science Blog is going to provide you with random science-related articles, some of them related to the Public Health Campaign topics, some to the topics of EPSA Science! Monthly. They will also cover news from different pharmaceutical fields, facts and reviews of different diseases and, of course, medicines. Through interviews with professionals in the field of science, readers will get to
know other aspects of research - what is happening behind work in a laboratory and what to do with outcomes and results. Interviews with PhD students will offer students an insight into their research work, daily tasks and, who knows, maybe they will inspire someone to become a PhD student themselves. With this Blog, EPSA would like to help students with passion for science by providing useful advice - where to look for articles, what are credible sources and how to cite them correctly, how to write an article and an abstract, how to prepare a poster and a presentation. As there is always a fun part to something, of course there is also the fun part of Science. Short video clips with experiments or funny facts, memes, movie summaries, stories, etc. to spice all the scientific seriousness and formalities and to show that science can also be entertainable and learnt in an interactive way, can also be found on the EPSA Science Blog. There will also be an opportunity for students to write something by themselves, send suggestions and ideas to help us develop and improve its content and make it as attractive and interesting as possible.
Dear reader, are you excited? Let me tell you that I am! EPSA Science Blog is a start-up project which presents a huge responsibility and requires commitment and a lot of time, therefore, I am, beside thrilled, also anxious. Hopefully this project will eventually grow and become everything described and more, and each visitor of the blog will find something for them. With enthusiasm, motivation and the skills I know we have, we can make it. Together with the EPSA Team, especially the Educational and Public Relations Departments, which I would like to thank for their support and input. Okay, are we ready?! 1, 2, 3… Let’s Science!
Anja Sribar EPSA Science Coordinator 2017-2018
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Education
European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
EPSA Trainers Board
Bernardo Marinheiro, EPSA Training Coordinator 2017-2018
As Training Coordinator, I feel like I am the link between my Trainers and the world. In EPSA, the Training Coordinator represents the EPSA Trainers by constantly having them and their opinions in mind when giving any input. By organising several events, always with the help of the Trainer’s Board, we provide them with opportunities to reach our students and to develop themselves. As the main contact person when it comes to Local Training events, it’s the job of the Training Coordinator to make sure everyone knows what they need in order to deliver a Training somewhere and to keep both local associations and Trainers motivated to have Trainings at a local level. Why did I mention the world? Well, there are other Training Projects out there, there are more opportunities to improve and to have an impact in the soft skills world. It’s with the idea of improvement and of “sharing is caring” that the Training Coordinator should strive to nurture collaborations with the other Training Projects. Such collaborations give us joint events, more open calls for our Trainers and more people for us to reach with our desire to share our knowledge! In the end, it’s the job of the Training Coordinator to look for, provide and guarantee opportunities for our EPSA Trainers to improve and to reach more and more people. However this job can’t be done by myself. For that reason, we all need the Trainer’s Board, the EPSA Team, local associations and their LSs, the EPSA Trainers and the participants themselves.
My role in the EPSA Trainers’ Board is being an Internal Capacity Building member. With this, I am the EPSA Training Coordinator’s right hand in organising two training events within the EPSA Training Project. The first is the EPSA Training New Trainers (TNT) event, which provides one or two new generations of EPSA trainers every year. My tasks are to help in designing the event schedule, application/evaluation forms and selection criteria, and then in making arrangements between EPSA and an EPSA Member Association selected as a TNT host. Those arrangements are especially concerning logistics (e.g. availability and adequacy of venues, schedule details), and other organisational matters (e.g. training material). I also attend online meetings, usually taking care of the meeting minutes. The second event that my position is partially responsible for is the EPSA Train the Trainer (TtT) event, which gathers EPSA Trainers annually in order to help us grow and develop as trainers. My tasks here are to help the Training Coordinator with designing the event schedule, both logistic and content wise, as well as finding potential external partners, e.g. associations or trainers, and to include them in the TtT programme. A common task for both of those two events is also to keep updating the guidelines. As a part of the EPSA Trainers’ Board, I attend the Board meetings where we discuss current matters related with the portfolio of each Trainers’ Board member and brainstorm on ideas to develop the EPSA Training Project further.
Neža Trpin, Internal Capacity Building Member
www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online
Education
Since the title of the position is quite self-explanatory, I’ve got the easiest job among the four of us. There are 3 types of activities included in the communication part: communication from us towards the trainers, which goes through short monthly updates and minutes from our meetings, communication among trainers (including us), which is happening via email and the Facebook group, but also through online hangouts where we share experiences with each other. Another important way through which we communicate and share resources is the EPSA Training Library, something that also falls under my responsibility. Lastly, there is communication from trainers to us, and while of course this happens all the time, we also have an Annual Check, filled in by all trainers. This allows us to know how the training project is doing, but it also helps us to evaluate our human resources and to check on how our trainers are doing. Second comes the mentoring part. As learning does not stop when the TNT ends, we want to make sure all our new Trainer Candidates get the support they need, in order to become amazing trainers. Therefore, all of them are assigned a more experienced trainer as a mentor, who guides them on their path. This also falls under my responsibility and, while mentors are decided mostly by the Training Coordinator and the trainers at the TNT, I follow up with mentors and mentees and make sure everything runs smoothly. However, none of these activities can be done by just one person and that’s why I count on the support of the Training Coordinator, the rest of the Trainers Board, but mostly on our trainers.
Štefan Moravčík, Training Events Member
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Raluca Radu, Communications and Mentoring Member
Hi, my name is Štefan and I have become a trainer in May 2016. For this mandate (2017/2018) I am part of the Trainers’ Board as a Training Events member. As the name of this position suggests, it’s mostly focused on the training events. And we have quite a few of them. To start, EPSA has 3 big events a year with high prevalence of soft-skills trainings. These are: Annual Congress, Summer University and Autumn Assembly. My task is, together with Bernardo, to prepare the schedule of the trainings and to assign trainers to the training topics, so each trainer is satisfied with their trainings and their timing – it’s not always an easy task, but so far, we are doing well. My responsibility during the events is to take care of the trainers, so they have everything they need to deliver high quality trainings. After the event, I am the one who collects the feedback from trainers, to provide them with even greater wellbeing on the future events. Besides the above mentioned, EPSA has couple more events I am responsible for. We had Trainers on tour in the end of February/ beginning of March where trainers visited Estonia, Finland and Sweden to deliver soft-skills trainings to the local students. Again, my task was to ensure everything went smoothly, from preparation of the tour, through the actual deliveries, ending with a feedback form to improve for next tours. Finally, we have Training week, which is aimed on raising awareness about training project and getting softskills closer to the pharmaceutical students.
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Education
European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
Methodology Booklet The History of the Methodology Booklet The Methodology Booklet is an EPSA project aiming to represent student’s opinion regarding education at the European level. This project has been under development for some years already and went through some changes in the past years so let’s travel in time and see how the Methodology Booklet became what it is today. The idea for Methodology Booklet arose in 2013, because of the will that students had to take part in the decision about teaching methodologies around Europe. To make this a reality, EPSA thought about a way to collect students’ opinion to create a big impact on the different pharmacy faculties around Europe. With the help of the European Association of Faculties of Pharmacy (EAFP), we designed a survey to collect the opinion of European pharmaceutical students on specific topics. After the results were collected, they were presented at the EAFP congress at 2014. However, the survey didn’t have sufficient follow up and the impact of it diminished with time because of the outdated data. Consequently, the project needed to be revamped. We needed to reformulate the survey and rethink the promotion and sharing strategies, so we could reach more people and increase the impact of our booklet. Revamped Methodology Booklet With the growing concern from EPSA regarding academia education, it’s time to bring the Methodology Booklet project back and implement it throughout Europe. For the project to have better impact, we are happy to collaborate with EAFP to create a better survey and to reach more people. We aim to have a visible impact both in the areas of education and advocacy.
In that way, we can look at educational approaches that have professional applications to complement the students’ approach to the current state of academia. After this, we will go through the results, analyse them area by area, draft conclusions for each specific topic independently, and with the help of EAFP we will create the Methodology Booklet which will be shared with professors and deans around Europe. Why is it important for you to participate? Without your participation, it’s not possible for us to gather and advocate for students´ opinion regarding these methods. The influence of our Methodology Booklet depends on you and the more answers we get, the more impact the booklet is going to have on the methods of education in Europe! How can you participate? The link to the survey can be found on the EPSA website and social media. Once the survey is done, your answers will be recorded and they will help us build a more influential booklet. And since every huge project has its own special promotional catch, the Methodology Booklet will have something to motivate you to participate! For you to feel more motivated and to help us get more people participating on this survey, the association that has more students participating will have the chance of writing a full article in EPSA’s newsletter. With this in mind, participate, engage and help your association get far!
As an outcome of the discussions with EAFP, the survey was extended to 15 topics, in contrast to the 5 topics we used in the previous one. The promotion of the survey started on the 11th of March and it will be open for 2 months. Moreover, we will count with answers from recent graduates in order to have a professional point of view included in the results.
FILL IN THE SURVEY
GIVE US YOUR OPINION
Diogo Capítulo, EPSA Educational Affairs Coordinator, 2017-2018
HELP YOUR ASSOCIATION WIN!
www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online
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Education and Events Calendar Events and Educational dance on the Calendar
Just recently, EPSA has updated the already established Events Calendar with a new addition: education-oriented seminars, events and webinars! The newly prepared Events and Educational Calendar is waiting for you on the homepage of EPSA’s website! Education and mobility are a high priority in EPSA and we strive to provide as many opportunities as possible to all of the 160 000 pharmaceutical students we represent. With Events, we can show how active our Member Associations and ourselves really are, making sure to promote our activities and increase awareness about certain topics discussed on the Events itself. External events accessible to pharmaceutical students are shared as well, as we strive to introduce our members to the professional world as soon as possible. The educational activities were added with the same purpose; to ultimately offer our members the opportunity to develop their knowledge and skills in different areas, as part of the concept of lifelong learning (check out LLeaP as well!). The calendar shares events and activities organised by EPSA, our members and external associations. A submission link is available on EPSA’s homepage, so go there and submit your activities or the ones you feel are the most interesting to other students and see them appear on the calendar! Do you wonder what kind of events or activities you can submit? Anything goes! From social events to educational activities, such as webinars, PhD opportunities, congresses, public health campaigns and summer schools. The calendar will state if a fee is required to take part in the activity so students know what to expect. After the event, you are encouraged to write a post which could be published on the EPSA Blog and on the LLeaP platform once it is launched.
2018 EAFP Annual Conference: Pharmacy Education
ISC - International Students’ Congress
Make sure you follow the calendar, the opportunities to learn, meet other students, and professionals are endless. See you everywhere around Europe!
Regulatory Careers Live 2018
Eva Shannon Schiffrer, EPSA Vice President of Education, 2017-2018
Nejc Klopčič, EPSA Events Coordinator, 2017-2018
Visit epsa-online.org/ eventscalendar for more!
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Mobility
European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
TWINNET
Making mobility among EPSA members matter!
Dear readers, an article regarding mobility is here again in order to provide you with information about one of the biggest EPSA Mobility project, which is TWINNET! In the period between August 2017 and March 2018, 23 TWINNETs were organised by pharmaceutical students associations throughout Europe. The organised TWINNETs included participation from over 250 pharmaceutical students! Some of them traveled around 3,300 km to visit their hosting TWINNET partner and enjoy the ultimate experience that EPSA offers to its members. The educational programme during these TWINNETs covered a wide range of pharmacy-related topics such as clinical pharmacy, cannabis for medical purposes, pharmacovigilance or medical biochemistry. Besides the educational sessions, EPSA Trainers were delivering hours of trainings, which allowed the participants to enhance their soft-skills, project management or public
speaking in an interactive way. At some events, the participants were provided with the opportunity to take a closer look at the pharmaceutical industry environment by visiting a pharmaceutical company accompanied by a presentation representing standards and technology of the production. The social programme was packed with ice-breaking games, dancing classes, tasting and cooking traditional food and exploring the historical monuments. This way TWINNET teaches its participants to understand another culture and how to be more open and respectful towards the people from a different country. After taking part in the TWINNET project, the participants are not just more rich in knowledge, adventure or experience, but also in their personality!
Adriana Slaná EPSA Mobility Coordinator 2017-2018 I participated in a Twinnet in Serbia, Novi Sad. It was a great experience, to see another country, culture and life. I had the opportunity to meet new people with different lifestyle and opinions. I’m lucky to consider them as my friends. If I had a chance, I would definitely do it again. Kateřina Bráchova, USF, Czech Republic Participant
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www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online
The emotion, the experience, the people are the reason why Twinnet is so special and unforgettable. I can say, that I have found friends for a lifetime. Despite the short amount of time that we had together every one of us created memories which I will never forget! Twinnet is a journey, in which you need to take part at least one time. Petar Arnaudov, BPhSA Bulgaria, Sofia, TWINNET Coordinator
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External
European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
External representation Strengthening ties 23rd Congress of EAHP Between the 21st and 23rd of March, the 23rd Congress of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) took place in Gothenburg, Sweden. The Congress brought together more than 3500 hospital pharmacists from all over the world to discuss different aspects of the topic “Hospital Pharmacists show us what you can do!” The Congress had a very rich educational programme, covering topics such as biosimilars, digitalisation of healthcare, research, role of hospital pharmacists, and more. There was also a poster exhibition with 517 posters covering 6 different areas of hospital pharmacy, representing the statements of hospital pharmacy, which can be viewed on the EAHP website. But that is not all – the Congress also offered a massive exhibition area, where companies could present their latest developments to the participants! The Congress also offered a student and young professional rate, and we had about 50 people taking advantage of them. As I was mostly busy with supporting the EAHP Secretariat with any organisational matters, Patrick Jongeleen, Vice President of External Relations, joined me at the Congress to represent EPSA at the booth, which EAHP kindly shared with us. Patrick was in charge of representing EPSA at the exhibition area, a job he did extremely well! The Congress was amazing! Seeing so many hospital pharmacists in one place, with about 200 people attending the sessions organised in the scope of the programme, was enchanting. I hope I will be able to join the next, 24th Congress, taking place in Barcelona in 2019!
Črtomir Fleisinger EPSA President 2017-2018
www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online
External
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IPSF EuRO meeting From the 1st until the 4th of March, the IPSF European Regional Office Regional Working Group had their meeting at the IPSF flat in the Hague, the Netherlands. EPSA was invited to discuss EPSA-related activities and collaborations on Saturday, the 3rd of March. Diederik, EPSA Treasurer, and I were present.
It was great to be invited to the meeting and it helped the collaboration.
Multiple topics were discussed and our expectations for future collaboration have been levelled. We agreed upon a foreseen amendment to our new and current Memorandum of Understanding; we determined who will attend each other’s events and EPSA has been updated about the organisation of the EuRO Regional Assembly, the Trainers Development Camp and we discussed possible collaborations at the European Youth Event in Strasbourg. After the meeting the informal part started and we went to the city centre of the Hague. Walking around the centre, seeing the King’s office and the parliament couldn’t be missed! We ended in a nice café where they served burgers and beers, so we were able to discuss more informal matters and catch up on the social stories within the associations. EMSA Spring Assembly 2018: “Disaster Medicine” From the 23rd until the 28th of March, the European Medical Students’ Association organised their Spring Assembly, the biggest event of EMSA, in Ohrid, Macedonia. Due to the Memorandum of Understanding that EPSA and EMSA are having, EPSA was invited to the Congress. The topic of the Congress was ‘Disaster Medicine’, an increasingly important topic on the Global Agenda. The aim was to raise awareness among the next generation of healthcare professionals on how important it is for them to be prepared to be called upon to help their communities in times of crises, to be able to provide healthcare services to disaster survivors and other medically related disaster preparations, planning, response and recovery throughout the disaster life cycle because disaster medicine is the ultimate team sport! I arrived late in the night after the EMSA equivalent of the International Night, the European Village Party. This meant that the participants wore their traditional clothing, were covered in face paint and were a bit more than tipsy. In the upcoming days, I participated in a pillar session on a questionnaire that EMSA is preparing to share with their members in order to find out how much the students actually know about eHealth, and what they want to know about it! In addition, I delivered an EPSA presentation during a plenary general assembly session and even integrated by capturing the EMSA flag and demanding a compensation for it in the form of a ludicrous performance. EMSA and particularly the Department of External Affairs were caring and showcasing the external guests. This was a pleasant experience and I would like to thank them again for the great time!
Patrick Jongeleen EPSA Vice President of External Relations 2017-2018
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External
European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
EHSAS Interprofessional collaboration In February, we met for the 4th EHSA Summit in Brussels. In this context, we mean the beautiful people in the picture that are representatives of EMSA, EDSA, EFPSA and EPSA. The idea for EHSAS came up in 2014, with the main objective of bringing healthcare students from across Europe together to work on improving the quality of education collectively. It began with focusing on the importance of interprofessional collaboration to ensure patient safety, increased communication and understanding and continuity of care from all healthcare providers. Additionally, the Summit was used as a platform to recognise the possible collaboration opportunities on advocacy, educational activities and sharing best practices. It presents a milestone in the development of interprofessional collaboration in healthcare. Upcoming areas of work include the Open Access initiative, the fight against Antimicrobial Resistance, and collaborative training sessions in each partner organisation’s congresses. Throughout the last years, the collaborative approach between all healthcare professionals has become an essential element of healthcare. As students and future professionals in this field, we have identified the importance of interprofessional education (IPE) as a precursor to effective interprofessional collaboration (IPC). However, throughout European healthcare faculties IPE is widely underrepresented in curricula. We believe that in order to prepare students to be part of an interprofessional team, education and training programs must embrace and reflect this. Therefore, we collaborated in the development of an IPE policy paper. The paper is based on the results of a European-wide survey, conducted online and targeted at European healthcare students. It attracted just under 1500 respondents from 36 countries over two weeks in late 2014. As a result, 90% of the respondents consider Interprofessional Education an important, yet overlooked, part of their education, with just over half of them actually receiving any interprofessional contact. We realized that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done in order to bring our education further. To increase the awareness of the topic in Brussels and to reach out to
decision makers, we decided to organise a policy event in the European Parliament. We will bring together representatives from the academic field, Brussels´ stakeholders, health professionals, students of medical, dental, pharmaceutical and psychology schools and policy-makers. We will be hosted by the Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Lieve Wierinck, from ALDE (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe) who is a pharmacist herself, and has already hosted the EPSA Annual Reception in 2017 and 2018. We are very happy and excited about that and hope to welcome you in Brussels on 07.06.2018!
Dorothea Dalig EPSA Vice President of European Affairs 2017-2018
The European Federation of Psychology Students’ Associations (EFPSA) represents a highly diverse network of psychology students working on a voluntary basis by and for psychology students of Europe. The Federation currently consists of 33 psychology member organisations and one observer organisation. EFPSA is also member of the European Healthcare Students’ Associations Summit (EHSAS) which offers them to share experiences
from their voluntary work, good and bad practices that occured in their respective organisations and opportunities for interprofessional collaboration on topics that are of common interest to involved parties. One of such topic is Open Access which is one of the branches of Open Science movement started by Right to Research Coalition. Its main goal is to make scientific journals and articles available to broader public without paying excessive fees. Since students often encounter such obstacles while writing different assignments or thesis, EHSAS members are one of the many organisations who are supporting the Open Access movement. Valerija Vidović, External Relations Coordinator in EFPSA The European Dental Students’ Association (EDSA) is a not-for-profit, independent organisation. We currently represent 70,000 dental students from over 30 different countries. Our aim as an organisation is to provide opportunities for dental students, and discuss current issues and topics. The aim of this is to not only raise awareness, but also use our unified voice to try to implement changes in our field. Joining EHSAS has been a great success, and we are proud to say that we are a part of it. Being able to work with other healthcare professionals is paramount
www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online in order to provide holistic patient care, and we believe that EHSAS is a perfect example of how working together is a symbiotic relationship. Working with EPSA has been very fruitful so far; we have written important policy papers together and have participated in each other’s congresses. We have also aligned our interests in Brussels by coming together to discuss many topics. Both our organisations are also very interested in Health Promotion Projects and have worked well on these together. All in all we are very pleased with our collaboration with EPSA, and look forward to continuing to work together in the future. Elen Rowlands, Vice President External in EDSA The European Medical Students Association (EMSA) is a nonprofit, non-governmental organisation representing more than 150.000 medical students across Europe, from 110 European faculties and 28 countries. Its activities gather around six pillars: Medical Education, Medical Ethics and Human Rights, Medical Science, Public Health, European Health Policy and European Integration and Culture. EMSA is a founding organisation of the European Healthcare Students’ Association Summit and leading the summit for the next term. During the EHSAS weekend in February, the parties agreed on antimicrobial resistance as one of the focus topics of the year. AMR is an increasingly serious threat to global public health that requires action across all government sectors and society. The associations decided to update the joint AMR position paper first published in 2014 - and stress the interprofessional alignment in opposing the dangerous trends in AMR, demand an enhancement of governmental, university, research facility and private sectoral efforts to develop new, effective and innovative treatments, diagnostics, updated guidelines on the use of Antibiotics and integrate such important aspects of the matter in the paper as One Health. Orsolya Süli and Sebastian Banningh, Department of External Affairs of EMSA
Weyn
External
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Alumni
European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
EPSA Alumni Project What does Alumni mean? Alumni is the plural of Alumnus and this expression refers to a former pupil or student of a particular school, college or university or a former member of a group, company, or organisation. The EPSA Alumni Project was established in order to encourage individuals who were actively involved in the past to remain in contact with each other, with EPSA and its members. It can be also seen as a platform for understanding EPSA’s past, present and future history where Alumni are still a part of the EPSA Spirit! This project is coordinated by the Alumni Coordinator, with the supervision of the Vice-President of Internal Affairs, and any communication with the Alumni Network is done through one of these positions. But who can be an EPSA Alumnus? Any individual actively involved in EPSA in the past can become an EPSA Alumnus and should have carried at least one of the following responsibilities: - EPSA Team; - Liaison Secretaries and National IMP Coordinators; - EPSA Trainer; - Reception Committee Member of EPSA Events. If you have contributed to EPSA in one of the positions mentioned before, you should go to the EPSA Website, to the Alumni Tab and fill in the Alumni Form or you can just drop an email to this address: alumni@ epsa-online.org. How do we communicate with them? As mentioned above, Alumni Coordinator is the ultimate person responsible for communication with Alumni and at the moment these are the tools employed: Mailing list – We use a Google Group where EPSA Alumni that showed
their interest to continue involved in EPSA and wanted to actively contribute to the Association take part. We share all the information relevant to Alumni, such as EPSA achievements and outcomes, and we also actively ask them for opinions on various different matters. Facebook- We also use a Facebook Group where the EPSA Team usually posts about the EPSA activities that might be empowered by Alumni, as Alumni share lots of different things, like job opportunities and even photos of Alumni gatherings around Europe. Even though we already have these communication channels, last mandate we felt we could improve the communication between EPSA and Alumni Network, and among the Alumni Network, even more, therefore itself even more, therefore we have created the Alumni Platform.
www.epsa-online.org | @EPSA_Online
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Alumni Platform Alumni Platform is a Membership Management tool where everyone that is entitled to have Alumnus Status can register to, and it’s basically a separate webpage with a log-in only access.
professionals in the working environment, and bring them into contact with the students that we represent. Therefore a large part of this project relies on the contact with our alumni network to ensure that we will have enough topics to be discussed and enough speakers to make sure we can achieve this goal.
Each Alumnus has a profile page where he/she states where currently lives, which EPSA Events has attended, which position has held in EPSA, where he/she works and etc. This homepage allows Alumni Coordinator to post EPSA related news, Alumni events for which they can register through the platform as permits Alumni to discuss on topics of their interest in a loose way.
Mentoring Project follows the idea of the Alumni Project, enabling us to establish a concrete bond between Past-EPSA officials, who are now professionals, and current students. The idea is to provide the current students with career guidance from past students under an International perspective of development.
This platform is about centralize all information and provide inspiration and opportunity to connect, potentially also leveraging the experience and contacts of Alumni for the benefit of EPSA. Other than that this platform has a map that shows where do members currently live, which also encourages Alumni to check if they have a peer where they are they are traveling to, per example. In which activities can we find EPSA Alumni? In every EPSA Congress, we organise Alumni Weekends, which are composed of a social and cultural programme as possible educational programme. It usually takes place in the last 4 days of the Congress. The aim is to integrate the Alumni within the Association, provide a touch of nostalgia, as to use this network in the advantage of the Educational Programme of the Congress. You can also find Alumni in projects such as: Chat with Professionals aims to develop our relationship with
EPSA has grown exponentially in the last years and this is due to our Members and you, the pharmaceutical student, but also thanks to EPSA Alumni. EPSA Alumni will always have the EPSA “seed” on them and we just should take advantage of their experience and knowledge to make this Association grow. We truly cherish this network and EPSA is very thankful for all the help, advice and support Alumni has been giving us. Keep making the EPSA Spirit Alive!
Leonor Soares EPSA Vice President of Internal Affairs, 2017-2018
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Alumni
European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
EPSA AAB Alumni Advisory Board The Alumni Advisory Board (AAB) is comprised of 7 Members, including the Alumni Coordinator. The primary concern of the Alumni Advisory Board is to provide the EPSA Team and Executive with advice and support throughout the mandate, using their knowledge and experience from past mandates, as well as to help develop and improve EPSA for the future. Currently, these are the Members of the EPSA Alumni Advisory Board: - Guilherme Monteiro Ferreira, Portugal - Daniela Kolberg, Germany - Timothy Robinson, UK - Tomaso Piaggio, Italy - Svetlana Kolundžić, Serbia - Maja Šerčić, Slovenia
I see the role of an AAB member, mainly in being like a big sister: reliable and frank comments, feedbacks and supports your work splits difficult situations into easy digestible parts and stays at your side shows you the bigger picture and the potential impacts your actions might have For me it’s about consulting and guiding out of the meta perspective, based on the experiences made in the past, personally and professionally. Giving an objective view on topics brought up within the AAB my focus would be to advise on how the communication of projects, initiatives and statements could be perceived from the outside, and also from the inside. My background as communication consultant is of big help!
Daniela Kolberg Germany
Currently I am employed in a healthcare advertisement agency, and before that I worked in PR. Besides project management, my job is about being creative and conceptual, digging into language, perceptions and emotional awareness, thinking about the possible impact a word or a picture might have and how to transport the right message to the right people. I am really looking forward to an exciting year and being back in EPSA!
My journey in EPSA started as a participant of the EPSA Autumn Assembly in Helsinki, 2010. Later on I was representative of my national association, Audit Committee member 2014/2015, VP of External Affairs 2015/2016 and lastly Alumni Coordinator 2016/2017. Today, I work in pharmaceutical industry as senior sourcing manager, working with third companies in development of new generic drugs. My work includes working with different people all around the globe and many of the skills and experiences I have gained in EPSA are helping me today to be successful, facing everyday challenges at work. I am happy to be a member of the Alumni Advisory Board and be of help to EPSA! Maja Šerčić Slovenia
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Alumni
I was part of the EPSA Team between 2009 and 2013, being the Vice President of External Affairs on my last year of activity, working at the same time as Intern at the Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union (PGEU). Before that, and among other positions, I was also President and Treasurer of EPSA. I am a member of the AAB from its establishment, and since 2015 I am an EPSA Honorary Life Member. I contribute to EPSA not only via the AAB, but also through the mentoring of EPSA students across Europe, and advising directly members of the EPSA Executive. Professionally, I work at a global pharmaceutical company in the areas of Government Affairs & Market Access, being currently located in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) for an International Assignment in the leadership of these functions. Before, I spent my career in Brussels working in European Government Affairs. Guilherme Monteiro Ferreira Portugal
My engagement in EPSA started with the Twinnet project – in 2010 I was one of the participants, and in 2011 I was coordinator of the project in my local association in Belgrade. The year after, I took the role of the Liaison Secretary for NAPSer, Serbia. I joined the EPSA Team as Parliamentarian for the mandate 2013/2014 and next mandate, I was elected as President. After finishing my official positions as Immediate Past President in the mandate 2015/2016, I am glad to be able to still contribute to the work of EPSA as part of the Alumni Advisory board. I currently work in pharmaceutical industry, in marketing, and, needless to say, my everyday job is eased thanks to the skills I gained through EPSA. I hope I can pass on some of my professional experience and advices to the current and future EPSA Teams! Svetlana Kolundžić Serbia
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Alumni Where are they now?
My EPSA journey started in 2015 when I have been elected to the Public Health and Social Services (PHSS) Coordinator position. After I ended my second mandate as PHSS coordinator in 2017, I was already involved in DIA through an internship I started while I was still an EPSA team member. Now I am a Scientist in the Content Development Team at DIA, Basel office, and I am responsible for the emerging professionals’ projects and the programme development for the specialty meetings under the pharmacovigilance portfolio. The soft-skills gained in EPSA, the networking opportunities and the experience I had during my 2 EPSA team mandates were the main pylons that helped my career move forward. These crucial factors built the foundation of the DIA pilot project I initiated with my colleagues, “Leader of Tomorrow”, and that is now becoming successful worldwide.
Catarina Nobre Portugal
Elena Popa Romania
Almost five months after becoming an EPSA Alumna, I also officially became a pharmacist! Anyway, EPSA is still quite alive in me, either if it is because of the contact I keep with Team Members or if there is anything I can help/advise about. After finishing my mandate as President, with position papers published about the importance of Soft Skills and Interprofessional Collaboration, I am happy I continued pursuing these topics and my Master’s final thesis was about Empathy in Healthcare Students. Since mid-January, I am working in the National Association of Pharmacies (ANF), in Lisbon, in its Institutional Affairs department. It is almost like a Portuguese EPSA for grown-ups! Part of my job is to monitor national and European stakeholders’ activities and political moves that can have an impact on Portuguese Pharmacies. I also do get to work with international partners, attend healthcare events and support our PR department, creating materials to be shared amongst key opinion leaders or with the pharmacists. See you around Europe :)
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Alumni
I work as a Business Developer at Asphalion, striving to expand the company’s strategic objectives by securing new projects and partnerships. I’m bridging the gap between the company’s expertise and the challenges faced by the pharmaceutical industry in the area of Regulatory Affairs. I also recently launched a side project called Pharmadelic with a vision to augment awareness of possible pharmaceutical careers amongst students and recent graduates. Before expanding my activities into Business Development, I worked as Regulatory Affairs Consultant, where I specialised in Regulatory Information Management. My previous work experience includes being Quality Assurance Compliance professional in Krka, where I was responsible for monitoring, implementation and control of the implementation of international and national regulations, guidelines and recommendations in the area of quality assurance. I served in EPSA between 2014 and 2016 as Educational Affairs Coordinator and Central IMP Coordinator. Whatever you do, don’t be passive, get involved, now!
Nikola Lazarevski Macedonia
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David Kološić Slovenia
In October last year, I started working as a Junior Scientific and Regulatory Specialist in PharmInvent in Prague, Czech Republic. Since PharmInvent integrated with PrimeVigilance into one of the world’s largest drug safety service providers, I joined the Medical Writing Unit as a Junior Pharmacovigilance Specialist, where I currently prepare various documents for regulatory and pharmacovigilance purposes. If, a year ago, anyone had told me that I would be living and working in the “city of a thousand spears”, in a team of around 90 highly qualified people from 20 different countries, among which are fellow pharmacists I had met on EPSA events, I would never believe it. But here I am, and I would never have made it without EPSA. I encourage all of you to grasp the opportunities it offers, as you never know which door in the professional world it will open for you!
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On 23rd of February, APEF held an event for associative leaders in order to improve communication and discussion skills. The event took place at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Coimbra and there were workshops followed by a simulation of motions about traineeships in Portugal. In that same weekend we held Educational Forum with the topic “Different horizons and new perspectives”.
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Matilde Machado, LS for APEF, Portugal
ŠSSFD had once again, successfully organised the Twinnet exchange from the 5th to 11th of March. The first part of our »Ljublinnet« with PPSA Lublin, took place in Ljubljana and it included soft skills trainings, lectures, faculty tour, science excursion, sightseeing of Slovenia, Poster presentation competition and different theme parties. We can’t wait to visit our friends in Lublin for the second part of the project!
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Katja Veber, LS for ŠSSFD, Slovenia
In Europe each year about 60,000 women suffer from cervical cancer, and 30,000 die. Encouraged by this thought this project was held in order to raise awareness of the disease and the possibilities of preventing and early detection of cervical cancer. The implementation of preventive programs, together with effective public health education programs to ensure the participation of all women in them, would significantly reduce the burden of cervical cancer in all countries and ensure equal health protection for all citizens.
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Miljenka Roso, LS for SAFPUM, Bosnia and Herzegovina
European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association During the 4th to 9th of February, FASFR celebrated World Cancer Day with a public health campaign having the motto “We can. I can”. The campaign was carried out online on social media. We had six days of consecutive posts that we shared with our students. The posts consisted of: general statistical information about cancer, infographics about children with cancer, good practices examples in the oncology field in Romania, information about cancer prevention. To raise awareness about the missing oncological medicines in our country we shared an infographic and we had a public position in the meeting with the Minister of Health.
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SCSS (Students’ Scientific Communication Session) offers the opportunity to students to sustain their scientific research in front of their colleagues and a jury comprised of the teachers from Faculty of Pharmacy. The session is divided into 4 categories: Fundamental Science with experimental research , Speciality Science with experimental research , Scientific Abstract and Scientific Posters. Also, the students can participate to other contests like: Clinical Aptitudes, Patient Counseling, Chemistry Contest and Compounding Event.
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Crişan-Lucian Cîmpeanu, LS for SSFB, Romania
Patricia Adam, LS for FASFR, Romania
What can be better than beginning the semester with a Twinnet? It was a pleasure to welcome 30 pharmaceutical students from Lyon in February. During their one week stay we tried to organise colourful programmes for them. We had the opportunity to visit the Scientific and Technological Centre of EGIS, learnt about building a career in the industry and creative problem solving during the soft skill trainings. The participants had great fun discovering the city with its beautiful sights. Last but not least the students could also get an insight of Budapest’s famous nightlife and the Hungarian cuisine as well. Both of the team had a lot of fun.
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Dávid Ketskeméty, LS for HUPSA, Hungary
At the end of 2017, NAPSer marked a jubilee - 10th NAPSer Congress took place in Zlatibor, from December 20th to 24th. To cover the topic „Innovation in pharmacy – importance, necessity and expectations“, we organised a series of lectures and interactive workshops delivered by renowned lecturers and experts. In the evenings, 300 participants continued the congress at four theme parties.
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Mina Grguri, LS for NAPSer, Serbia
AEFFUL presents you the 2018 Soft Skills Advanced Program. This program is subordinated to the themes Entrepreneurship and Critical Thinking, but what makes it revolutionary is that it allows participants to enjoy continuous, intensive and more personalized trainings in these fields by acquiring tools to suit their real daily and professional needs. Each of the three sessions assigned to each of the themes lasts approximately two hours and all of them are guaranteed by qualified EPSA Trainers.
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Marcelino Oliveira, LS for AEFFUL, Portugal
ANEPF, France is celebrating its 50th anniversary. With a growing desire to open up to the world, French students are welcoming you to celebrate with them during their annual congress which take place from June 28th to July 1st in Clermont Ferrand. For the first time, all the sessions will be proposed in English for international participants with workshop symposium GA and also a social program as only frenchies can make it.
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Sid Ahmed AMEZIANE, LS for ANEPF, France
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Events Calendar
April
Regulatory Careers Live 2018 -TOPRA 30th April, 2018 London, UK & Dublin, Ireland Meet your potential next employer from the regulatory affairs industry, discuss challenges such as moving into regulatory affairs from another specialty, making the next step on the career ladder or returning to work at the only careers fair in Europe dedicated to regulatory affairs. EAFP Annual Conference 2018 16th - 18th May 2018 Parma, Italy The European Association of Faculties of Pharmacy is hosting its Annual Conference 2018 in beautiful Parma, Italy. If you are interested in how our education is being shaped, do not fail to attend!
May EUFEPS Annual Meeting 2018 24th - 26th May 2018 Athens, Greece Join EUFEPS in sunny Athens for their Annual Conference, this time under the topic “”Crossing Barriers for Future Medicines”. You will be able to follow the rich scientific programme and network with professionals!
June
6th ISC - International Students’ Congress 31st May - 2nd June 2018 Graz, Austria The ISC is an international students’ congress whose aim it is to connect health sciences. Students are able to present their papers and thesis (bachelor, master, diploma, PhD) in oral or poster presentations but also can join keynote lectures and various workshops. It’s a good chance to make friends interdisciplinary and get a further insight into other professions. In the evenings we offer a social programme like a city tour, pub quiz, reception at the mayor’s hall and a farewell party. AFÖP also organises some workshops and a public health campaign at the venue!
22nd International Pharmaceutical Summer Camp (IPSC) Slovenia 10th July - 15th July 2018 Javorniški Rovt, Slovenia IPSC will be held in north of Slovenia – at a lovely location in Javorniški Rovt, in a youth hostel called Trilobit which is just a few steps away from lake Javornik.The theme of the 22st IPSC is “Boost it up”. The Educational Programme will include lectures, interactive workshops and soft skill trainings. Social Programme will include many themed parties, traditional preparation of Kreftovec and discovering peautiful Slovenian nature.
July
EPSA Summer University 23rd July - 29th July 2018 Izmir, Turkey Experience the 20th EPSA Summer University by the beach in Izmir, Turkey! With the topic “Communication barriers between pharmacists and patients” participants will be able to talk about this issue while developing themselves on many soft skills trainings provided by EPSA trainers! Join us in sunny Izmir!
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EPSA Executive contacts Don’t hesitate to contact us President Črtomir Fleisinger president@epsa-online.org VP Internal Affairs Leonor Soares vp.ia@epsa-online.org Secretary General Leonor Pereira secgen@epsa-online.org Treasurer Diederik Enschedé treasurer@epsa-online.org VP Education Eva Shannon Schiffrer vp.education@epsa-online.org VP Public Relations Cláudia Ferreira vp.pr@epsa-online.org VP External Relations Patrick Jongeleen vp.er@epsa-online.org VP European Affairs Dorothea Dalig vp.ea@epsa-online.org EPSA Office Rue du Luxembourg 19 bte.6 B- 1000 Brussels, Belgium www.epsa-online.org
Did you enjoy reading this Newsletter? Don’t miss the future editions of this publication by becoming an Individual Member in EPSA. How? Go to www.epsa-online.org, “Members” and check out the page about the Individual Membership. Fill in the application form and send it to the EPSA VP of Internal Affairs (vp.ia@epsa-online.org). This newsletter is produced by EPSA and is distributed to all EPSA members, national pharmaceutical student organisations, faculties, official bodies and partners.
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European Pharmaceutical Students’ Association
BE WELL. NOT A WISH. A PROMISE. For more than 150 years, a very special passion has driven the people of MSD. Our goal is to develop medicines, vaccines, and animal health innovations that will improve the lives of millions. Still, we know there is much more to be done. And we’re doing it, with a long-standing commitment to research and development. We’re just as committed to expanding access to healthcare and working with others who share our passion to create a healthier world. Together, we’ll meet that challenge. Promise.
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