On May 5, 2004 in Prague the working group of oncology pharmacy within the Section of Hospital Pharmacists of the Czech Pharmaceutical Society J. E. Purkyne was established.

The establishment meeting was held in the presence of the Section of Hospital Pharmacists Chairwoman PharmDr. Helena Rotterová, MBA; the board representative of the Oncology Society of the Czech Medical Association J. E. Purkyne, doc. MUDr. Luboš Petruželka, CSc.; the President of the European Society of Oncology Pharmacy (ESOP) Klaus Meier; and the Chairwoman of the Section of Pharmaceutical Technicians of the Czech Association of Nurses Marie Šalandová. The meeting was attended by 15 pharmacists and technicians from hospital pharmacies from Prague, Brno, Hradec Králové, Ostrava and Olomouc. The purpose of the working group is to create contacts, establish relationships and develop cooperation among Bohemian and Moravian pharmacists who take part in the treatment of oncology patients. The activities of the group will concentrate on the exchange of experience from the central preparation of cytostatics in pharmacies or from clinical pharmacy with focus on oncology, and on educational events focusing on oncology pharmacy for pharmacists and technicians. Professional events for pharmacists will be held twice a year, in Bohemia and Moravia alternately; seminars for technicians will be held in individual regional centres (Brno, Ostrava, Hradec Králové, and Prague) twice a year as well. The national working group will closely cooperate with the European Society of Oncology Pharmacy (ESOP) and the International Society of Oncology Pharmacy Practitioners (ISOPP).

The ESOP President will enable all participants to enter the ESOP (www.esop.li) and the DGOP (Deutsche Gesellschaft für onkologische Pharmazie) websites freely and thus the availability of current information and the opportunity for continuous education in the field will be ensured. The ESOP website also includes national websites of individual EU countries. These contain information in the mother tongue about national delegates, national education centres, and a brief summary of quality standards for cytostatics preparation. Each country can publish their own professional information at this website. The Czech working group of oncology pharmacy have decided to use the webpages as the information media.

We would like to invite all hospital pharmacists interested in oncology pharmacy to join.

PharmDr. Irena Netíková, PhD.

president of the working group of oncology pharmacy

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