The AGM, which is free to attend for IPU members, will take place on the Friday 26 April and will commence at 7.00pm. In order to manage numbers at this meeting we would kindly ask you to tick your attendance at this event when registering. Light food and refreshments will be provided for attendees. The IPU’s 2023 Annual Report will be circulated to members in advance of the meeting. Please scan the QR code to book your attendance at this event.
The National Pharmacy Conference will consist of a jam-packed day of speakers and activities on Saturday 27 April. The proceedings will be chaired throughout the day by Derek Reilly, Secretary General (Acting) of the IPU.
The morning session will have an extensive array of high-profile speakers, both Irish and international. The day’s proceedings will begin with a welcome from Mr Reilly, followed by the first keynote speaker, Dr Pat O’Mahony, Chair of the Expert Taskforce to Support the Expansion of the Role of Pharmacy. Diogo Dominguez-Piedade, Economics Affairs Manager at PGEU will follow Dr O’Mahony, before the morning session concludes with Shaun Flanagan, the Assistant National Director of the PCRS.
The afternoon sessions will consist of a motivational speaker, who will be revealed in the coming weeks, and a clinical CPD session which will be delivered jointly by both Prof. Laura Sahm and Dr Michelle O’Driscoll. Prof. Sahm is Professor of Clinical Pharmacy, UCC, and Dr O’Driscoll is a Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacy, also from UCC.
This will be followed by an engaging and thought-provoking panel discussion in the ‘Great Debate’, and will consist of an extensive list of panel participants including Dr Pat O’Mahony, Shaun Flanagan and Joanne Kissane, Registrar and Chief Officer of the PSI. This section proved to be a highly engaging and interactive session in 2023 and we can expect a lively session again in 2024.
Our ‘Great Debate’ will be followed by an address from IPU President, Dermot Twomey and the days’ proceedings will then be concluded by Mr Reilly.
The agenda includes plenty of time to interact with the wide range of relevant organisations who will be present in the Exhibition Hall, which will encompass approximately 30 stands covering medical, financial, business and insurance fields. The exhibition hall will be open from 8.15am on Saturday morning, providing time to interact and talk with all the exhibitors, providing attendees the opportunity to see the latest technology and developments, new products and systems for pharmacy, as well as business, financial and insurance advice.
This is a unique conference and is the only event of its kind in Ireland, and it would not be such a success without the generosity and support of all our sponsors and exhibitors.
The evening’s entertainment with start with pre-dinner drinks at 7.00 pm prior to the President’s dinner at 8.00 pm. This will be followed by a small live band to kick off the evening entertainment.
To find out more about this year’s event and to book your attendance at the AGM (free to attend for fully paid-up members), and the IPU National Pharmacy Conference, scan the QR code or go to ipu.ie/conference.
Dr Pat O’Mahony, MVM, MBA, C Dir, is Chief Executive at Mapat Management Consultants where he provides strategic management consultancy to selected clients across various sectors including Biopharmaceuticals, Med Tech and Health Care Systems. Particular interests at present include value based healthcare, clinical research and genomics. Pat is also Chairman of the Board of the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) and Chairman of the Board of the Irish Medicines Verification Organisation (IMVO).
Dr O’Mahony previously served as CEO at Clinical Research Development Ireland, the clinical and translational research partnership of the Universities in Ireland from 2017 to 2019; Deputy Secretary General and Head of Governance and Performance at the Department of Health for 15 months; and Chief Executive of the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) from 2002 to 2015.
Having spent a number of years in private clinical practice and as technical manager in the pharmaceutical industry in Ireland and the UK, Dr O’Mahony worked in public health and was Director of Consumer Protection at the Food Safety Authority of Ireland.
Dr O’Mahony has previously served on a variety of public and private sector boards including the European Medicines Agency (EMA), where he served as Chairman from 2007 to 2011; the Food Safety Authority of Ireland; the National Patient Safety Advisory Group; and as Vice-Chair of the International Coalition of Medicines Regulatory Authorities. Dr O’Mahony was appointed Chair of the Ministerial Expert Taskforce to Support the Expansion of the Role of Pharmacy in 2023.
Diogo Dominguez-Piedade is Economic Affairs Manager at the Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union (PGEU), which is the voice of community pharmacy in Brussels. As Economic Affairs Manager, Mr Dominguez-Piedade is responsible for the PGEU initiatives related to health economics and policy. He monitors EU policies in the areas of EU economic governance and health systems resilience and sustainability. Moreover, he produces data-driven analyses of market developments in the healthcare and pharmacy sector, to advice PGEU members and to inform PGEU policy positions. He also contributes to develop PGEU relationships with stakeholders and institutions, including with the European Commission and the OECD.
Prof. Laura Sahm is a Professor of Clinical Pharmacy at the School of Pharmacy in University College Cork (UCC). As a pharmacist with over 30 years’ experience spanning community, hospital, industry and academia, she has seen first-hand the challenges that patients and their families encounter when managing medications.
One of Prof. Sahm’s research areas is health literacy and she has been involved in many projects to promote clear communication strategies by healthcare professionals, with the aim of improving the patient experience. She received a B.Sc. Pharm (Hons) from the University of Brighton and won a scholarship from the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) to pursue her postgraduate studies in the Grade 5A* Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology, University of Bath.
Prof. Sahm obtained her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics (site-specific drug delivery of methotrexate to melanoma), in 1995. She moved to Germany in 1996 where she worked in community pharmacy, and for the pharmaceutical industry (Takeda GmbH).
Dr Michelle O’Driscoll is a lecturer of Clinical Pharmacy at the School of Pharmacy in University College Cork (UCC), and senior postdoctoral research at the National Suicide Research Foundation. Her undergraduate research project found that one in four patients did not understand the instructions on a box of paracetamol, and Dr O’Driscoll continued to witness evidence of these health literacy challenges in practice after qualifying and working as a community pharmacist. Her postdoctoral research continues to explore the optimisation of patient and healthcare professional education, including work with the Health Research Board, the Health Service Executive, the Department of Health, and the National Cancer Control Programme. She also writes a weekly women’s wellbeing column, providing accessible information for the general public.
Dr O’Driscoll received a BPharm from UCC in 2011 and an MPharm from RCSI in 2012. Her PhD in 2019 evaluated a national intervention for pharmacy student wellbeing. She was the COVID-19 Hub Lead Pharmacist for the IIoP in 2022, and launched the UCC Digital Badge, ‘An Introduction to Health Literacy for Health and Social Care Professionals’ with Prof. Sahm and the National Adult Literacy Agency, earlier this year.
Joanne Kissane is the Registrar and Chief Officer of the PSI, having commenced in the role in January 2023. Prior to joining the PSI, she was the Director and National Coordinator for APPEL, a joint office of the three Schools of Pharmacy in Ireland, which manages the student experiential learning placements for the integrated Masters degree programmes in pharmacy. She has worked in community pharmacy as a practising pharmacist, and she was the superintendent pharmacist for Lloyds Pharmacy for seven years, and subsequently held the role of Head of Operational Excellence for the organisation.
Ms Kissane was a member of the PSI Council for seven year and chaired several PSI committees during this time, and served two years as PSI President.
This is a unique conference and is the only event of its kind in Ireland, and it would not be such a success without the generosity and support of all our sponsors and exhibitors.
Further speaker details will be revealed in the coming weeks. Please logon to the events page of the IPU website to get the latest updates. Scan the QR code here for the latest conference information and speaker updates.
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