ESOP – the world’s largest multinational oncology pharmacy society,
supporting the interests of cancer patients.
Dear members and friends,
When we were founded in Prague in May 2000, we hoped to contribute to a great global
development of cooperation in oncology pharmacy.
Unfortunately, the small majority in the ISOPP, which was then made up by a few countries,
voted against allowing regional issues to flow more into society. The course
was set to regard only specialists as actors and all others as additional
members without influence. This hurt me a lot, especially as the outgoing first
elected President, because our motto at the beginning was: “Unity in diversity”.
This also meant that the ISOPP was more oriented towards the interests of financially
strong sponsors and their issues, whereas the ESOP wanted to give members in
the EU as well as around the world the opportunity to find common answers for
daily practice issues. For this purpose, the “Quality Standard for Oncology
Pharmacy Service” (QuapoS) introduced by the DGOP was then developed jointly by
all members from all countries at regular intervals and is now used in many
countries around the world as a guideline for answering questions about dealing
with oncology drug issues.
As early as 2005, the number of members grew so strongly that it was decided to allow
national associations that deal with oncology pharmacy to register their
members as members of the ESOP, with the stipulation that common goals of the
ESOP can be implemented regionally better and more sustainably .
This means that countries that are too small or that are unable to found their own oncology
pharmacy society for other reasons still have the option of naming a regional
contact person.
The activities in oncology pharmacy, which initially extended to therapy in
clinics, have continued to develop. This is not only reflected in the position
paper “High Standards of Oncology Pharmacy”, but also
in the orientation of the QuapoS from manufacturing to patient-related
pharmacy.
ESOP members support cancer patients in community pharmacies, outpatient departments and
clinics. Colleagues in licensing authorities, supervisory offices and
administrations are confronted with questions that deal with treatment but
above all with prevention and pharmaceutical care. They all found a home in
ESOP.
In 62 countries around the world, colleagues are proud to contribute to better
support for cancer patients as ESOP members and thus to make everyone aware of
the role of our profession.
Data protection plays a major role for us. Members are continuously addressed
through newsletters or letters for as long as they want. Information about
individuals is never passed on to external interests or sponsors. We protect
you from unauthorized access as far as we can and continue to count on your
unconditional support.
Yours
Klaus Meier
ESOP President
Dear Colleagues,
2020 was different than we could have imagined or expected 12 months ago.
As a consequence, the healthcare systems and the entire establishment across the world had been subject to extensive scrutiny on their sustainability.
COVID-19 spread and moved unstoppable across the world. Those countries with cases early in the year had to defend themselves without precise knowledge. Saving people was the only principle that applied. Scenarios of foreclosure, of the relentless struggle of the people in the health sector, were enthusiastically praised by the people all over the world and the title of “key professionals” became the norm.
In parallel, with facts coming to light, fears of prehistoric times events became real. Protective suits and masks became rare, ventilators were too few, and drugs, in particular for anesthesia, became scarce. During the previous 3 months we asked fellow key professionals about their perception of the situation and provided weekly reports on this. These results are available to everyone on our homepage www.esop.eu.
We are still intrigued by the insidiousness of the disease and still see no magic cure on the horizon.
Driven not only by concern but also by economic interests, vaccines are brought to market in a rush and medicinal products are used in individual periods for symptomatic treatment on or off-label.
How will it go on? Will we get on top of it? What consequences will this have on life as we know it and what measures we will have to deal with?
For this and in order to gain more knowledge for the short term and for the future, our team has worked together with the EAHP to create a structured approach to collect this perceptions and facts at wider scale and continue to provide monthly updates.
For this, we will need your support in taking a few minutes each month to fill in this questionnaire. It is anonymous and in order to be able to carry out a correct evaluation, we ask you this time for two things:
- Please take part in it continuously over the next 6 months so that we can collect more precise statistical data and
- Please use the same account / password each time so that an evolution over time is available for you to read.
So far we have received a feedback from fellow professionals from 63 countries. We’ve come a long way some might say, but our work is not complete.
With wider audience and feedback from a larger number of professionals we will have an improved insight on the reality as it is seen by those who, as health professionals, do not cease to let the appearance of the profession be recognised as a calling.
Klaus Meier, President
This team of colleagues from all over the world will accompany the questionnaire campaign over the next 6 months.
We would be delighted if as many people as possible could participate on a permanent basis.
You will have time to answer the questionnaire one week after its publication. Even if you cannot answer everything, it is important to participate.
The questionnaire is available in German, English, French, Spanish, Russian, Italian and Bosnian.
We look forward to your participation.
