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30 Oct, 2021
Online Resources

Biosimilars - Supporting Your Patients

Start date
Location
Online training programme
Cost
Free

This course looks at biological medicines and biosimilars. Compared to conventional small molecule drugs, biological medicines are larger and more complex molecules. While there are many types of biological medicines, the majority are therapeutic proteins, and these are the focus of this course.

The programme should take approximately 2 hours to complete.

The learning objective is met through achievement of the learning outcomes below.

At the end of this module, pharmacists will be able to;

  • Understand how biological medicines are developed and approved by regulatory agencies
  • Describe the legal and regulatory considerations important to clinical practice
  • Define biosimilars
  • Understand the safety considerations if switching brands of a biological medicine
  • Discuss the importance of education for healthcare professionals and patients

The course is laid out in six lessons followed by case-based scenarios.

Lesson 1: Biological Medicines – an Introduction

  • Understand why biological medicines are important for you and your patient
  • Outline the history of the development of biological medicines
  • Understand the key differences between small molecule medicines and biological medicines

Lesson 2: Development of Biological Medicines

  • Understand that the living organisms used to produce a biological medicine are naturally variable
  • Understand how the product is defined by the manufacturing process for biological medicines
  • Outline the scientific principles used to ensure that quality, safety and efficacy is consistently maintained
  • Discuss the concept of immunogenicity and its importance

Lesson 3: Biosimilars

  • Define a biosimilar
  • Outline key differences between biosimilar and novel biological medicine regulatory pathways
  • Understand how scientific principles used to ensure batch to batch similarity for the reference medicine are used to confirm biosimilarity
  • Potential advantages biosimilars bring for the patient

Lesson 4: Interchangeability

  • Define interchangeability, switching and automatic substitution
  • Outline current regulations and legislation in Ireland
  • Knowledge of recommendations relating to switching in the Irish health service
  • Knowledge of the management of biological medicines on the High Tech Hub

Lesson 5: Pharmacovigilance

  • Understand that the safety considerations for a biosimilar and its reference medicine are the same
  • Understand all newly approved biological medicines are “black triangle”
  • Understand that traceability is essential for pharmacovigilance of biological medicines

Lesson 6: Education

  • On successful completion of this section, you will be able to discuss the importance of education and the role of pharmacists

Lesson 7: Case-based Scenarios

01 Nov, 2021
Live workshops

Mentorship Skills for Pharmacists (3 Evenings)

Start date
Location
Online
Cost
Free

Three Part Programme - 1st, 8th and 15th of June from 7.00pm to 9.00pm

The IIOP introduced the Mentorship Skills Training Programme for Pharmacists in late 2019, facilitated by the hugely experienced team from Kingstown College in Dublin. We are delighted to announce new dates for June 2021. The programme will be delivered remotely using a webinar style format over three evening sessions on the 1st, 8th and 15th of June, please note that attendance to all three sessions is required in order to complete the training programme. 

The team at Kingstown has a wealth of experience in online education, and the programme promises to be engaging and informative. 

The aim of the training programme is to introduce pharmacists to recognised principles of mentorship and assist them to engage with examples and scenarios that will help them to implement these principles into their own practice. It would be particularly useful for pharmacists who have an interest in supporting colleagues and developing others. It would be anticipated that those participating in this programme would be open to initiating mentoring relationships within the profession as part of a formal mentoring programme in the future. 

On completion of this programme participants should be able to:

  • Understand the differences between mentoring and coaching
  • Recognise the benefits of a mentoring relationship for both parties
  • Describe the principles of mentoring including recognised theories and frameworks
  • Describe the different types of mentoring
  • Recognise what a good mentoring relationship looks like
  • Identify the core skills and qualities of an effective mentor
  • Identify the qualities of an effective mentee
  • Understand the stages of a mentoring relationship/cycle
  • Use appropriate goal-setting tools
  • Demonstrate key mentoring skills
  • Recognise the importance of the mentoring contract
  • Understand the limitations of a mentoring relationship
  • Explore the ways in which the skills, acquired in this course, can be used in practice

As the numbers are limited for this event, if you are not able to attend please use the unenrol option to allow your place be allocated to someone on the waiting list.

02 Nov, 2021