ADKA Annual Congress: Highlights of the Poster Exhibition

The guided poster tour was very popular: Divided into three groups, Dr. Angela Ihbe-Heffinger from the Starnberg Hospital, Dr. Claudia Langebrake from the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf and Dr. Constanze Rémi from the Clinic and Polyclinic for Palliative Medicine at the LMU Munich Hospital led the congress visitors through the poster exhibition.

Volker Röttgermann from the Catholic Clinics in the Märkischer Kreis, Iserlohn, started with his study on ensuring the correct placement and application of oral Substitution therapy during inpatient admission. "It is estimated that more than 50 percent of patients undergoing oral substitution therapy experience a discontinuity upon admission to the ward," the hospital pharmacist informed. This could pose a direct risk to the patient.

In his project work, Röttgermann was able to demonstrate that pharmaceutical measures such as physician training on substitution medications and the creation of a standard operating procedure with rules for non-substitution of substitution medications can reduce the absolute number of errors in the ordering and administration of oral substitution therapy and increase patient safety. "These measures could achieve comparable results on other wards and at other locations and significantly increase patient safety during inpatient admissions with oral substitution therapy," the author stated.

Zoe Mittmann, pharmacist and doctoral student at the University Medical Center Mainz, presented her results on stability studies of the antiemetic Akynzeo® (fosnetupitant, palonosetron). According to the product information, the concentrate (20 ml) should be diluted in 30 ml of 0.9 percent saline solution. The shelf life of the ready-to-use infusion solution is stated as 24 hours at 25°C. Based on her stability studies, Mittmann was able to demonstrate that Akynzeo infusion solutions diluted with 30 ml and with 100 ml of 0.9 percent saline solution in prefilled polyolefin infusion bags are physically and chemically stable for a period of 28 days at 25°C and protected from light. "On this basis, aseptic preparation can be carried out in advance in the pharmacy," said Mittmann.

Hospital pharmacist Paula Müller from the Technical University of Dresden highlighted the discrepancy between the time required to administer antineoplastic therapy to cancer patients in theory and practice. Using pembrolizumab as an example, she demonstrated that the administration of chemotherapy takes approximately 1.5 times longer than the standard protocol calls for. "This is due, among other things, to the fact that the protocol does not take into account important steps such as patient preparation or necessary interventions by nursing staff—keyword: flushing," explained Müller.

The hospital pharmacist aims to outline a more realistic process with her analysis. The goal is to save patients unnecessary waiting times and increase nursing staff satisfaction. Her approach still has limitations, but further studies are planned.