Editorial

On 6th October 2009, the new officers of the EAFP were elected during the first meeting of the new Executive Committee.

I am happy to announce that I was elected president for the next three years.  The new vice-president is our colleague Carlo Rossi from Perugia (Italy).  José Morais (Lisbon, Portugal) was re-elected as the General Secretary- and the new treasurer is our colleague Karen Ulshagen from Oslo (Norway).  This team has a great deal of experience in management, and I am convinced, that they will serve the Association with all their intelligence and assiduity.

Serving the Association will be my goal as president.  I hope to be a president for all Schools of Pharmacy in Europe, wherever they are based :  north, south , east and west.  I had the opportunity to work as a member of the Executive Committee under the supervision of three devoted presidents : Dick Tromp, Benito del Castillo and Jeffrey Atkinson.  It was an honor to learn from them and I will use this experience to serve the association during the next three years.

The European project PHARMINE (www.pharmine.org) will be the driving force of EAFP for the next few years.  The PHARMINE consortium consists of four universities (Brussels, Nancy, London and Lisbon) that are members of the European Association of Faculties of Pharmacy and EU partner associations representing community (Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union), hospital (European Association of Hospital Pharmacists) and industrial (European Industrial Pharmacists Group) pharmacy, together with the European Pharmacy Students' Association and other interested bodies. Jeffrey Atkinson (the immediate past president of EAFP) is the executive director and I am the coordinator of the PHARMINE consortium.  PHARMINE will survey existing systems for pharmacy education and training in Europe and then put forward propositions taking into account the need for basic pharmaceutical competences (and the mutual recognition of pharmacy qualifications within Europe) and the specialization needed in the various areas of pharmaceutical expertise.

I sincerely hope that through projects such as PHARMINE and others, we can convince more Schools of Pharmacy in Europe to become member of our Association.  We need all our force to face all the challenges confronting EAFP in the future.

Prof. Dr.  B. Rombaut
President EAFP

We are pleased to announce that the PHARMINEproject has been funded with support from the European Commission, Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union:

In the XXI century EU, pharmacists will play an increasingly important role as partners in the efficient use of the health care resources of the EU (community and hospital pharmacists). They will also be major players in the development of the EU pharmaceutical industry (industrial pharmacists).  Whilst abiding by the recommendations for the duration and course content for EU pharmacy education and training given in the directive 2005/36/EC on the recognition of professional qualifications, PHARMINE will examine the opportunities for the introduction of the principles of the Bologna declaration into pharmacy education and training with the aim of tuning the latter to the future needs in the three areas of pharmaceutical expertise: community, hospital and industrial pharmacy.

The PHARMINE consortium consists of four universities (Brussels, Nancy, London and Lisbon) that are members of the European Association of Faculties of Pharmacy  and EU partner associations representing community (Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union), hospital (European Association of Hospital Pharmacists) and industrial (European Industrial Pharmacists Group) pharmacy, together with the European Pharmacy Students’ Association and other interested bodies. It will develop a bachelor/master/doctorate system for pharmacy education and training taking into account the need for basic pharmaceutical competences (and mutual recognition of pharmacy qualifications) and the specialization needed in the three main areas of pharmaceutical expertise.

To do this the consortium will survey existing EU pharmacy curricula and attempts to adapt these to the Bologna process. The consortium will then produce a common competency curriculum as well as curricula for specialized pharmacy practice. This will be presented to the EU commission, national authorities and national professional pharmacy bodies. The aim is to put forward an EU standard for pharmacy education and training to be adopted by both the older and newer member states as well as candidates for EU membership and countries in non-EU areas such as Africa, China, India and South America. EAFP will provide advice, quality assurance and approval to countries and higher education institutions wishing to adopt this new EU standard for pharmacy education and training.

The PHARMINE consortium will be run by:
Bart Rombaut , Dept.Microbiology and Hygiene,  Vrije Universiteit Brussel , Laarbeeklaan 103 , 1090 Brussel , Belgium. 
brombaut@vub.ac.be 
Jeffrey Atkinson, Pharmacolor Consultants Nancy (PCN), 12 rue de Versigny, 546000 Villers, France.
jeffrey.atkinson@orange.fr

www.pharmine.org

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union: 
142078-LLP-1-2008-BE-ERASMUS-ECDSP.

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New Issues in Postgraduate Education

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18th to 20th June, 2009