Welcome to the IPU Academy Autumn Programme

Welcome to the IPU Academy Autumn Programme, which follows our successful Spring Programme, at which close to 1,900 attendances were recorded. Using your personal membership login, you can view and book online all the live learning courses in the IPU Academy Autumn Programme.

The IPU Academy Autumn Programme will deliver Continuing Education (CE) in traditional presentation format, i.e. a two-hour live learning seminar, at a location near you. In addition to the live learning events, we plan to hold a number of national webinars on www.ipuacademy.ie during the Autumn Programme.

The five topics in the IPU Academy Autumn Programme were selected based on your feedback and, as usual, will be delivered in venues countrywide. The topics are all of current relevance and designed to assist you in developing and delivering services to your patients in your pharmacy.

The format for the live learning remains unchanged; courses will start at 8pm sharp and will last two hours. Coffee and refreshments will be served. 

Please note: We decided to introduce an Express Topic Course into the IPU Academy Spring Programme 2017, which proved very popular. The Dementia course will start at the earlier time of 7.30pm and finish at 9pm. Coffee and refreshments will be available from 7pm, prior to the course starting at 7.30pm, instead of the usual coffee break midway through the course.

The new IIOP system for monitoring our engagement with Continuing Professional Development (CPD) has now come into effect. IPU Academy is here to support your engagement with the new CPD system. There are five stages to the CPD cycle. A copy of the CPD cycle is included in the CPD template which is provided for each topic. You can enter at any stage of the CPD cycle, e.g. by attending an IPU Academy course you will have completed an Action stage of the CPD cycle. You can then download your IPU Academy Attendance Certificate to assist in completing the Document stage of the CPD cycle.

Feedback and suggestions for future topics to be developed by IPU Academy are welcome at ipuacademy@ipu.ie.

Opioids in Chronic Pain Management

The licenced indications, prescribing volume and course duration for opioid analgesics has increased steadily in recent years, alongside an upsurge in new opioid analgesics being brought to market. 

The aim of this course is to provide an update on the use of opioid analgesics in chronic pain management and to advise on how to minimise and manage the clinical risks to patients.

Eye Health

A community pharmacist spends a large proportion of their working day responding to symptoms and counselling patients on minor ailments such as eye health.  

The aim of this course is to provide an an overview of the most common conditions that affect the human eye and to provide practice points on the management of these conditions.

Biosimilars

A biosimilar is a biological medicine that is highly similar to another already authorised biological medicine. Increased numbers of biosimilars are likely to become available in Ireland in the coming years and will be used for treatment of a variety of conditions including inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis, and cancer treatment. 

The aim of this course is to provide an overview of the production, licencing and current use of biosimilars in Ireland.


Arthritis

Arthritis is an inflammation of the joints that causes pain and immobility, ranging from mild to severe. In Ireland around 915,000 people, including 1 in every 1,200 children, are living with arthritis, making it the single biggest cause of disability.

The aim of this course is to provide an overview of the most common types of arthritis, treatments available and useful support and self-help options.

Dementia

(Express Topic, 7.30pm – 9pm)

There are currently over 55,000 people living with dementia in Ireland, according to and this number is projected to increase to 113,000 by 2036. The community pharmacist is ideally placed to provide information on drug treatment and signpost information and support resources to patients and their carers.

The aim of this course is to describe the different types of dementia, their development and diagnosis as well as reviewing drug treatment and signposting patient information and support services.