Speakers

Speaker information will be added as speakers are confirmed. Please check this page regularly for updated information.  

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Marliese Alexander, Pharmacist, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia

Marliese Alexander is a pharmacist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and currently completing a PhD with Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. She is a clinical hospital pharmacist with an active research programme including haematology clinical trial coordination, haemostatic biomarker profiling and thrombosis risk assessment, and cancer survival modelling. She actively contributes to guideline development both for the institution and external working parties. Marliese is an active member of a number of professional societies, has published numerous peer-reviewed manuscripts, and is a reviewer for several journals.

 

 

Alain Astier, Head of the Department of Pharmacy, Henri Mondor University Hospital Group, Paris, France

Alain Astier carried out his pharmacy studies (Pharm D) in 1972 at the University of Paris V. He earned his PhD in Organic and Structural Chemistry in 1976 at the Paris XI University. He graduated in Cellular Pharmacology and Radiopharmacy. After being Assistant Professor in Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the Paris XI University from 1977 to 1981 and Professor of Clinical Pharmacy and Biotechnics at the University of Lorraine from 1997 to 2010. He is currently Head of the Department of Pharmacy at the Henri Mondor University Hospital. Professor Astier is a member of the French Academy of Pharmacy and was Laureate of the prestigious Galien Prize for Pharmaceutical Research in 2001. His current research interests include new formulations, analysis and stability of anticancer drugs, especially monoclonal antibodies. He has signed more than 220 research papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals and more than 300 communications in scientific congresses. He was a member of numerous scientific committees and a chairman in several international congresses. Professor Astier is Vice-President of the European Society of Oncology Pharmacy (ESOP) and of the French Society of Oncology Pharmacy (SFPO). He is member of the editorial board of several scientific journals. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Annales Pharmaceutiques Francaises, the official journal of the French Academy of Pharmacy. He was a member of the Board of Directors of European CanCer Organisation (ECCO) from 2012 to 2014.

  

Tiene Bauters, Clinical Pharmacist, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium

Tiene Bauters has been a clinical pharmacist at the Ghent University Hospital (Belgium) since 2003. She earned her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the Ghent University. For almost 10 years, she has been involved in Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation. In this role, she provides clinical pharmacy services with a focus on supportive care. She is the author of numerous peer-reviewed publications on topics related to pediatric oncology and has presented at many international conferences. Tiene has been an ISOPP member since 2008 and serves as a General Secretary member since 2014. In addition, she is currently a member of the International Society for Pediatric Oncology (SIOP) and the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT). She is the European Pharmacist’s representative for FACT-JACIE standards. 

 

 

Bruce Burnett, Senior Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, United Kingdom

Bruce Burnett has recently become Senior Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice at the University of Central Lancashire, where he is the Course Leader for the MSc in Advanced Pharmacy Practice. He hopes to progress his PhD in this new role. Prior to this, he was a teacher practitioner in clinical pharmacy at the University of Wolverhampton, which included a ‘practice day’ once a week at the Manor Hospital in Walsall. He began as a community pharmacist in 1989, and moved to hospital practice  at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle in 1992. His interest in oncology led to him completing an MMedSci in Clinical Oncology at Birmingham in 1998, and he has worked in a number of hospitals as Senior Oncology Pharmacist since then—Preston, Shrewsbury and most recently Glan Clwyd. His last hospital pharmacy post was as a consultant pharmacist. He is a member of British Oncology Pharmacy Association (BOPA) , International Society of Oncology Pharmacy Practitioners (ISOPP), European Society of Oncology Pharmacy (ESOP) , and most recently the BOPA Audit and Research Committee.

 

Carole Chambers, Pharmacy Director, Alberta Health and Services Cancer Care, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Carole Chambers is the Pharmacy Director of Cancer Services with the Alberta Health Services. She has contributed to over 50 peer-reviewed publications. She currently serves on the Provincial Advisory Group for pCODR and the panCanadian Pricing Negotiating Teams dealing with access issues to new oncology agents. She also joined the Board of the Institute of Safe Medication Practice (ISMP-Canada). Carole has remained active in ISOPP since completing her term as ISOPP President in 2010:  she is the ISOPP Research Committee Chair, sits on the JOPP Editorial Board, served on the Scientific Committee for ISOPP in Montreal 2014, and is a member of the team generating the ISOPP Virtual Journal Club. She holds an ISOPP Fellowship as well as the Helen McKinnon Award recognizing her significant contribution to ISOPP and oncology pharmacy practice.

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Alexandre Chan, Deputy Head and Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Alex Chan is Deputy Head and Associate Professor at the Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore  (NUS) and the Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore. He is also co-appointed as Specialist Pharmacist at National Cancer Centre Singapore. Currently, he is dually board certified in Pharma¬cotherapy and Oncology Pharmacy. Alex has published over 140 full-length peer-reviewed manuscripts in a wide array of cancer supportive care and survivorship topics, including chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, myelosuppression, cognitive impairment, dermatological toxicities and cancer-related fatigue. He provides research supervision to PharmD, PhD students and fellows, and his research program has attracted over US $2 million of funding support from numerous agencies and pharmaceutical companies. Alex is currently serving as the President-Elect ISOPP. He was the recipient of the Young Scientist Award from National University of Singapore in 2013, and he was elected as an American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) Fellow in 2014. He was also the recipient of the Steven M. Grunberg Memorial Award from Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer in 2015. 

 

Barbara Claus, Pharmacist, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium

Barbara Claus is a hospital pharmacist (since 2002) and currently works at the Ghent University Hospital in Belgium. At the hospital level, she is actively involved in adverse drug event and adverse drug reaction reporting. She is a member of the Pharmacotherapeutic Committee and is responsible for the logistics and accurate use (clinical pharmacy) of drugs. She obtained her PhD in Medical Sciences in 2015 with a research topic in the domain of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacoeconomics and is now Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Ghent University. In previous years, she was a research member and an author for several projects involving the Federal Public Service of Health. She is a current member of the National Policy Group on Drug Shortages in Belgium and recently joined the Belgian Drug Reimbursement Agency. Her past involvement as Vice-president (2011-2012) and as President (2012-2014) of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) Student Chapter of Belgium highlights her interest in efficient use of drugs.

 

Paul Cornes, Oncologist, Clinical Outcomes Group, Bristol, United Kingdom

Paul Cornes is an oncologist from Bristol, UK. He is part of the Steering Group for the European School of Oncology Working Party on the Access to Innovation in Cancer Treatment as well as Faculty for the annual ECCO European CanCer Organisation meeting and the ESMO-Barcelona, speaking on innovation and value-based medicine. Paul was part of the team that developed and presented evidence to the Oncology Advisory Drugs Committee of the Food and Drug Association (FDA) for the first successfully approved US biosimilar. He is Faculty for the Continuing Medical Education Programme of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists.

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Harbans Dhillon, ISOPP President, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 

Harbans Dhillon started working as a manufacturing pharmacist at the University Malaya Medical Centre in 1978. She was appointed as Chief Pharmacist in April 2015 and then promoted to Deputy Director (Professional) in September 2015. Harbans was the President of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition Society of Malaysia (PENSMA) from 1998 to 2010 and of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition Society of Asia (PENSA () from 2007 to 2009. Currently she is an advisor to both societies. Harbans is the President of ISOPP and was on the Secretariat from 2007 to 2009. She was also the President of Asia4safehandling Organisation which promotes safe handling of cytotoxic drugs in Asia from 2009 to 2010 and is still a board member. 

 

 

Dezsö Embey-Isztin, Consultant Anaesthetist, Head of Pain Clinic, National Institute of Oncology Budapest,Hungary

Dezsö Embey-Isztin is a consultant anaesthetist and Head of the Pain Clinic at the National Institute of Oncology Budapest. He started his work in this area in the Pain Clinic Department of Anesthesiology, Strasbourg, France between September 1980 and September 1981. Having returned from France, he organized and opened the Pain Clinic in his Institute. This Clinic was the first of its kind in Hungary. The Clinic treated any kind of chronic pain (cancer pain, neuropathic pain and musculo-scletal pain).

Dezsö is the first President of the Hungarian Pain Society (IASP Chapter), and is an Honorary President. His main interest is to perform sophisticated neurolytic nerve blocks. He is the Author of two books on pain management and 26 chapters of different medical books.

 

Fabrizio Festinese, Pharmacist, ASST Lodi, Lodi, Italy

Fabrizio Festinese is a hospital pharmacist at the ASST Lodi in Lodi. He graduated from the University of Naples "Federico II" in 2008 with an experimental thesis and obtained the PharmD at the University of Milan in 2013 with a thesis about the analysis of pain management and monitoring of therapy in the hospice of the National Cancer Institute Foundation in Milan (INT). His experience in oncology pharmacy is derived from more than 7 years as Clinical Pharmacist in INT and he has been an invited speaker and a lecturer for national and international conferences.

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Peter Gilbar, Pharmacist Consultant, Toowoomba Hospital, Toowoomba, Australia

Peter Gilbar holds two positions:  Pharmacist Consultant, Cancer and Palliative Care Services, and Senior Lecturer, School of Medicine, University of Queensland at Toowoomba Hospital, Australia. He holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy from the University of Queensland, a Masters in Palliative Care from Flinders University, and Fellowships from the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA) and ISOPP. He serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Oncology Pharmacy Practice, and is a member of the ISOPP Research Committee and ISOPP XVI Program and Abstract Review Task Forces. Budapest is the 13th ISOPP Symposium he is attending. Peter is a regular contributor to peer reviewed journals (over 60 publications) and a presenter at oncology conferences. His particular areas of interest and research include medication safety, symptom management, cancer drug costs and rural oncology practice.

 

Evelyn Handel, Oncologist Scientist, National Comprehensive Cancer Network, Willow Grove, USA

Evelyn Handel is currently an oncology scientist at the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) where she helps develop and maintain the NCCN Drugs & Biologics Compendium® and NCCN Chemotherapy Order Templates®, among other projects. Prior to joining NCCN, Evelyn  was an oncology clinical pharmacist specialist at Roswell Park Cancer Institute working with the inpatient and outpatient solid tumor services. In this role, she provided chemotherapy-related patient counseling as well as side-effect management through a collaborative Drug Therapy Management (CDTM) program, helped create a pharmacist-led oral chemotherapy monitoring program, and precepted pharmacy students and residents. She also served as Adjunct Clinical Faculty for both the D’Youville College of Pharmacy and the University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy. She earned her Doctor of Pharmacy from Ohio Northern University and completed a PGY1 Pharmacy Practice Residency at Oregon Health & Science University Hospital followed by a PGY2 Oncology Pharmacy Residency at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center.

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Donald Harvey, Associate Professor, Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA

Donald Harvey is Associate Professor of Hematology and Medical Oncology at the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, and serves as Director of the Winship Cancer Institute’s Phase I Clinical Trials Unit and Section. He has established an active clinical pharmacology research program in cancer at Emory with the goal of using pharmacokinetic, pharmacodynamic, and other tools to improve individualization of therapy and clinical outcomes.  

 

 

 

Lisa Holle, Associate Clinical Professor, University of Connecticut, Storrs, USA

Lisa Holle completed her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy and post-baccalaureate Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She completed a specialized oncology residency at UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, is a board-certified oncology pharmacist, a fellow of HOPA, and a current ISOPP Secretariat General Member. Lisa is Associate Clinical Professor at the UConn School of Pharmacy and School of Medicine. Her practice site is at the UConn Health Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center, where she works in a team-based ambulatory care clinic, conducts pharmacy practice and supportive care–related research, and teaches healthcare professionals.

 

Ida Homoki, Pharmacist, National Institute of Oncology, Budapest, Hungary

Ida Homoki graduated as a pharmacist at the Semmelweis University of Medicine in Budapest in 1984. She graduated as Special Economist of International Marketing at the College for Foreign Trade in 1992. She started her career in public pharmacies. She worked as a market researcher in Egis Pharmaceuticals, Budapest for five years and as a secretary at the Hungarian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association. Ida was the Office Manager of Medical Data Management, a pharmaceutical market research company. Since 2005, she has worked as a clinical pharmacist in the National Institute of Oncology, Budapest where she deals especially with clinical trials.

 

Jennifer Jupp, Pharmacy Clinical Practice Leader, Inpatient Hematology, Oncology, Blood and Marrow Transplant, Alberta Health Services - Calgary Zone, Calgary, Canada

Jennifer Jupp graduated from the University of Alberta in 2000, obtaining her Board Certification in Oncology in 2007.  Jennifer began her clinical practice with the inpatient Hematology and Blood and Marrow Transplant (BMT) Team at the Foothills Medical Centre in 2000, transitioning to her current position as Pharmacy Clinical Practice Leader in 2011.  Since then, her clinical practice has been with the Pediatric BMT team at the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary, AB. 

Jennifer enjoys teaching and regularly works with pharmacy students and residents during their rotations in BMT.  In addition, she provides BMT lectures at the University of Alberta, Faculty of Pharmacy.  Jennifer was the Canadian Association of Pharmacy in Oncology (CAPhO) President from 2012 to 2013  and continues to work on various committees with CAPhO and other pediatric oncology and BMT associations.  She has a keen interest in research and currently sits on the Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists Alberta Branch Research Committee.  Jennifer is strongly committed to advancing the practice of clinical pharmacists within the multidisciplinary team and is active in practice-based research.

 

Sandor Kerpel-Fronius, Professor of Clinical Pharmacology, Semmelweis Medical University, Budapest, Hungary

Sandor Kerpel-Fronius obtained his medical diploma at the Semmelweis University in 1964. At the same university, he received board certificates in Clinical Laboratory Sciences and Clinical Pharmacology in 1977 and 1980, respectively. From 1964 to 1975, he worked in Neurobiology at the Semmelweis University. In 1967 and 1968, he was a research fellow at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm and 1972 to 1974 a Sloan Fellow at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center in the US.

From 1975 to 1989, he led the Clinical Pharmacologic Research Group at the National Institute of Oncology in Hungary. In 1988, he spent a sabbatical year at the Cancer Center of the Wayne State University, Detroit, US. From 1989 to 2001, he worked in clinical drug development within the international pharmaceutical industry. In 2001, he became Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapy of the Semmelweis University. He was the General Director of the Hungarian National Institute of Pharmacy (Hungarian Drug Regulatory Agency) in 2002. 

Sandor is retired but continues to teach Clinical Pharmacology as Senior Scientific Advisor. In addition, he participates as a lecturer of Medicines Development at several international courses. 
Honors and Committee memberships include: Member of the St Steven Academy of Sciences, Hungary; Chairman of the Natural Sciences Section, 2001; .2016 Honorary Fellow of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians of the United Kingdom; IFAPP Board of Officers, Head of the IFAPP Working Group on Ethics; Educational Subcommittee of the EACPT (finished 2015); and Executive Board of the IMI-PharmaTrain. 

 

Tara Leslie, Clinical Pharmacist, Alberta Health Services/ University of Alberta, Calgary, AB, Canada

Tara Leslie attained her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy (BSP) degree from the University of Saskatchewan in 1997, obtained her Board Certification in Oncology Pharmacy (BCOP) in 2010, and acquired her Additional Prescribing Authority in 2013. She holds the roles of Clinical Pharmacist at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary, Canada and Clinical Assistant Professor with Experiential Education at the Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Alberta. For several years, Tara’s primary area of clinical practice has been with hematologic malignancy and bone marrow transplant patients. Tara is very involved with oncology education of pharmacy students as a preceptor and as an educator on topics such as hematologic malignancy, chemotherapy safety and oncology-related symptom management. Tara is an active member of ISOPP and the Canadian Association of Pharmacy in Oncology (CAPhO).  She serves as Chair for the CAPhO Pharmacist Education Committee and is Co-Chair of the CAPhO 2020 Task Force. 

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Felice Musicco, Pharmacist, Istituti Fisioterapici Ospitalieri, Rome, Italy

Felice Musicco is responsible for the hospital pharmacovigilance services with the Istituti Fisioterapici Ospitalieri (IFO) in Rome (IFO is a public research oncological and dermatological hospital). Prior to joining IFO, Felice was a military pharmacist. He is currently the ISOPP Website Work Group Key Lead and served as Chair of the ISOPP Publications Committee from 2007 to 2016 . Felice is a member of the team generating the ISOPP Virtual Journal Club. He was the first administrator of the ISOPP Facebook page and promoter of twitter use at ISOPP meetings. Budapest is the 6th ISOPP Symposium he is going to attend. He served as Chief of the website editorial board of the Italian Society of Hospital Pharmacists. His particular areas of interest and research include medication safety, reporting drug adverse events in both clinical and experimental setting. Another area of interest is information technology applied to pharmaceutical care (relational databases, mobile technology, web editing, social media and Internet). 

 

Shaun O'Connor, Eastern Health, Melbourne, Australia

Shaun O’Connor is the Senior Oncology Pharmacist at Eastern Health in Melbourne, Australia. He is the current ISOPP Treasurer, has served on the ISOPP Secretariat as General Member from 2013 to 2016 , and was a leader on the ISOPP Website Redesign Task Force. He served on the Organising Committee for the ISOPP International Symposium in 2012 as well as the ISOPP Regional Symposia in 2011, 2013 and 2015, which were all held in Melbourne. He has professional interests in malignant haematology and workflow redesign, and social interests in Aikido and tennis.

 

 

 

Rudolf Schierl, Head of Analytical and Monitoring Department, Institute for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, University Hospital Munich, Munich, Germany

Rudolf Schierl is the Head of the Analytical and Monitoring Department of the Institute for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, University Hospital Munich (LMU), Germany. He has a background as analytical chemist and studied during his professional career the exposure and uptake of environmental and occupational compounds. Specifically, in the field of ambient and biological monitoring of cytostatic drugs in hospital and pharmacy settings, he directed several studies, doctoral theses and has published various papers. He lectures at Munich Universities LMU and TUM and is an active member of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Occupational Health.

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Ulrich Schuler, Director, Center for Palliative Care, Universitätsklinikum Carl Gustav Carus, Dresden, Germany

Ulrich Schuler studied Medicine at the University of Tübingen, Germany from 1979 to 1986, including one year at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland.  His early scientific interests were mainly clinical pharmacokinetics of antineoplastic agents (PhD 1987, Habilitation Treatise in 2000) and stem cell transplantation. After training as a hematologist and an oncologist at the University Hospital Tübingen, he moved on to Dresden University in 1994 and continued training in Hemostaseology and Palliative Care. His publications have focused primarily on supportive care topics. In the academic self-government field, he served on the Institutional Ethics Committee from1996 to 2008, the Senate from 1999 to 2003 and the Faculty Council from 2001 to 2012 of the Technical University Dresden and the Medical Association Assembly of Saxony since 2011 (ongoing). Since 2002, he increasingly focused on the psychosocial aspects of oncology and was the Founding Director of the Center for Palliative Care at the University Hospital Dresden.

 

Rowena Schwartz, Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice, James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, USA

Rowena Schwartz is Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice at the University of Cincinnati School of Pharmacy.  She is an oncology pharmacist. Rowena received a Bachelor of Science at the College of Pharmacy, University of Illinois and a Doctor of Pharmacy at the University of Texas. She completed a fellowship in oncology drug development at the University of Texas. Rowena spent much of her oncology pharmacy career in clinical practice at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy and the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. She was Director of Oncology Pharmacy Services at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and maintained an active clinical practice at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center. She was Vice President of Clinical Content and Pharmacy Operations at McKesson Specialty Health and work closely with The US Oncology Network. Rowena has taught and lectured extensively including the pharmacy schools at University of Cincinnati, University of Pittsburgh, Duquesne University, University of Maryland, Charleston College of Pharmacy, University of Houston and Misr International University in Cairo, Egypt. Rowena is an active member of the American Society of Health System Pharmacist, Hematology and Oncology Pharmacy Association, Oncology Nursing Society and ISOPP.

 

Rosalyn Sims, Clinical Pharmacy Specialist, Children’s Hospital of Michigan, Michigan, USA

Rosalyn Sims has been a clinical pharmacy specialist in Hematology / Oncology at Children’s Hospital of Michigan for 18 years. She is a graduate of Emory University, with a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry, and she received her PharmD from Mercer University College of Pharmacy, both in Atlanta, Georgia. She has published several articles in scientific journals on topics which include rasburicase, recombinant factor VIIa, triple antifungal therapy, and carboplatin desensitization. Her most recent publication is the results of a study about differences in vincristine metabolism in pediatric leukemia patients of different racial groups. Rosalyn has been an ISOPP member since 1998. She has served as an active member of the ISOPP Membership and Finance Committees  and as the Committee chair. She is also a former General Secretariat member. Rosalyn is dedicated to the field of oncology pharmacy, especially for pediatric patients.

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Shinya Suzuki, Pharmacist, National Cancer Center Hospital East, Kashiwa, Japan

Shinya Suzuki is a clinical pharmacist at the National Cancer Hospital East (NCCHE) in Japan. After he finished his residency, he became a board-certified oncology pharmacist from the Japanese Society Hospital Pharmacist and the Japanese Society of Pharmaceutical Health Care and Sciences. Shinya is a member of the Japanese Society of Pharmaceutical Oncology (JASPO), which has over 2,000 members and accredits oncology pharmacy certification, and is a member of its Clinical Research Committee. He is also a member of ISOPP, HOPA and ESOP. He is a faculty member of the EXCEMED Preceptorship course in head and neck cancer.

 

 

Gábor Takács, Chief Pharmacist, National Institute of Clinical Neurosciences, Budapest, Hungary

Gábor Takács is currently working as Chief Pharmacist in the National Institute of Clinical Neurosciences in Budapest, Hungary. He obtained his PhD degree in Neurophysiology entitled”Limbic forebrain interleukin-1beta mechanisms in the central control of feeding, taste perception and metabolism.” Formerly, he lead physiology student labs for medical and pharmacy students in the Hungarian and German languages, and later he held lectures and seminars in Evidence-based Medicine, Pharmacoeconomics and Clinical Pharmacy for pharmacy students in the Hungarian and English languages. He investigates evidence-based evaluation and optimization of neurooncology therapies.

 

 

 

Birgit Tans, Pharmacist, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

Birgit Tans has been a hospital pharmacist at the University Hospitals of Leuven,  (Belgium) since 1987. For over 20 years, she is responsible for the Oncology Department within the hospitals’ pharmacy. Birgit currently serves on the Board of the Belgian Oncology Pharmacy Practitioners (BOPP) and represents Belgium as a delegate for the European Society of Oncology Pharmacy (ESOP). With her expertise, she is involved in the education of pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and nurses at the University of Leuven (KUL). Her current research interests are the safe handling of hazardous drugs and contamination of cytotoxic drugs.

 

 

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David Thomson, Lead Chemotherapy Pharmacist, Chemotherapy CRG & National Cancer Drugs Fund,  NHS England, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom

David Thomson is a cancer pharmacist working for NHS England (NHSE) to provide support and expert oncology pharmacy advice to the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) and to the Chemotherapy Clinical Reference Group (CRG). In that role, he is involved in the development and implementation of policy on funding of cancer drugs in England. David is previous Chair of the British Oncology Pharmacists Association (BOPA), Fellow of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and has recently completed an MSc in International Health Technology Appraisal, Pricing and Reimbursement.

 

 

Andreas Ullrich, Adviser to the Assistant Director General, Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland

Dr. Ullrich graduated in Medicine from the University of Munich, Germany, specializing in internal medicine, and then graduated in Public Health at the Bielefeld School of Public Health, Germany.

He joined WHO in 2001, working on its cancer control programme. He has since developed an organisation-wide cancer prevention and control network which is engaging all relevant technical programmes at WHO Headquarters and Regional Offices in responding to the needs of cancer control in low-and middle-income countries. He is also engaged in developing innovative partnerships for cancer care delivery, such as with HIV –showcased at a side event at the UN High Level Meeting on NCD and HIV in 2011, which he co-organised.

Dr. Ullrich’s current major focus is sustainable technical support to WHO Member States in developing national cancer plans by engaging cross over joint WHO programs on cancer, health systems, essential medicines and technologies, child and adolescent health and reproductive health as well as HIV. He is capitalizing from ongoing development aid in child and adolescent health (Global Financial Facilities of the UN, Every Women Every Child) and HIV (UNAIDS) and synergizing cancer in particular childhood cancer and cervical cancer with national health programs.

Dr. Ullrich is coordinating the evolving partnership between WHO and SIOP and CCI globally.

 

Johan Vandenbroucke, Senior Pharmacist Production, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium

Johan Vandenbroucke graduated as a pharmacist in 1979 from Ghent University, completing his PharmD as a hospital pharmacist in 1981. Since then, he has worked in the Ghent University Hospital and became Senior Pharmacist for the Production Department in 2001. Johan joined ISOPP in 1998 and has participated in every symposium since then (except in Washington), both as a participant and a speaker. He took the position as Co-chair of the Standards Review Task Force and became a Secretariat member, President Elect, President (2010-2012) and Treasurer (2013-2016).

 

 

 

John Wiernikowski, Clinical Pharmacist, Paediatric Haematology/Oncology, McMaster Children's Hospital, Hamilton, Canada

John Wiernikowski obtained his Pharmacy degree from the University of Toronto in1985 and PharmD from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1987. He started working with the Paediatric Haematology / Oncology service at McMaster University in 1987 where his research interests are supportive care related, focusing primarily on evidenced-based management of febrile neutropenia and musculoskeletal morbidity of cancer treatment in children.  He also has a keen interest in international health, particularly in developing countries.  In 1995, he was named Fellow of the International Union against Cancer (UICC) and traveled to South America as part of a health care team examining health care resources for children with cancer.  As part of that initiative, John has established numerous links with pharmacists in developing countries and has an ongoing interest in establishing educational and training programs for pharmacists in these parts of the world.  
John is a full member of the Children's Oncology Group (COG) and is actively involved in research endeavours of this group, particularly with Neuroblastoma. John has been involved with the Pediatric Oncology Group of Ontario since 1987 and was awarded the POGO Companion Award in 2005.  John has also been a member of the Canadian Association of Pharmacy in Oncology since its inception, and served as Treasurer from 2004 to 2007.  John has been a member of ISOPP since the ISOPP Symposium in Toronto; and is a long standing member of both the Research Committee and Education resource task  force. John served on the ISOPP Secretariat as a general member from 2006 to 2008, as President Elect from 2010 to 2012 and ISOPP President from 2012 to 2014. John currently serves as the ISOPP Secretary.  For his ongoing contributions to ISOPP, John was named a Fellow of the Society in 2008. 

 

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