Speakers from the Vilnius University Faculty of Medicine during the European Drug Utilization Conference / Photo from personal archive
At the beginning of July, the scientific conference of the European Drug Utilization Research Group (EuroDurg) „Bridging Data, Policy & Patients in Drug Utilization Research“ was held in Uppsala (Sweden). Among the 344 conference participants, 5 speakers from the Vilnius University (VU) Faculty of Medicine (MF) presented their research.
In this scientific event relevant topics were explored: informing drug policy decisions on access to medicines, AI as aid and challenge, One Health and drug utilization, evidence generation for the introduction of new drugs using RWD, health literacy, and patient engagement.
The co-chair of the EuroDurg conference, Assoc. Prof. Dr Indrė Trečiokienė presented the interim results of two self-led projects – prevalence of e-pharmacy adoption for dispensation of e-prescriptions and the comparison of drug utilization rates between different databases. PhD student Rokas Bartuška presented a systematic review on paediatric prescribing, and PhD student Anastasija Levkina presented a study on glycemic control consultations in community pharmacy. Kornelija Klinkaitė, a fourth-year pharmacy student, presented a report on the pharmacy labels in different European countries and lecturer Silvija Žiogaitė presented a study on the electronic prescribing systems in primary healthcare setting in Lithuania.
The EuroDurg conference provided new insights, ideas, and opportunities for collaboration in future projects in the field of drug utilization research. „I am pleased that the young colleagues in pharmaceutical sciences were inspired by the experiences and research of their international peers. It is encouraging that the research conducted at the VU MF matches in scientific quality, is diverse, relevant, and contributes meaningfully to both science and practice.“ said Assoc. Prof. Dr Indrė Trečiokienė.
Formed three decades ago, the EuroDURG research group organizes scientific conferences every few years. Each event attracts an increasing number of participants from around the world and promotes collaboration among researchers from various disciplines who are interested in drug utilization research.
A moment of the European Drug Utilization Conference / Photo from personal archive