Introduction

: Published: 19 May 2019

: Published: 15 November 2012

GENERALITIES

The Pharmaceutical Compounding Workgroup of the Spanish Society of Hospital Pharmacists (SEFH) was created in 2001 on the initiative of a group of SEFH members with a view to ensuring that all the different aspects involved in pharmaceutical compounding, i.e., with compounding of medicines in Spanish hospitals, were represented in the society.

The workgroup was established for an unlimited period of time, or for as long as hospitals carry out drug compounding activities and the SEFH Governance Board considers that the workgroup’s activities ais relevant to the society’s members.

GOALS

The pharmaceutical compounding workgroup seeks to bring together the knowledge and experience of hospital pharmacists dedicated to the compounding of medicines to tackle the day-to-day concerns and future challenges of our profession in a responsible and professional way. The workgroup’s specific goals are as follows:

To build consensus around the work procedures followed in the main activities used in hospital pharmacies for the compounding of medicines.
To provide hospital pharmacists with useful tools to effectively carry out their drug compounding functions.
To organize and promote training activities for pharmacists and technicians related to the compounding of medicines.
To design and promote research projects on drug compounding.
To establish relationships with other societies and workgroups that share our same goals.
To advise/collaborate with any organization or institution sharing our same goals on aspects related to the compounding of medications in hospital pharmacies.

WORKGROUP ORGANIZATION

The workgroup shall have a coordinator, a secretary, a steering committee and a member base that supports the activities undertaken by the workgroup.

1.- Funciones del Coordinador y el Secretario

The coordinator and the secretary shall, by mutual agreement, distribute between themselves the following functions:

Coordinating with other workgroups
Interacting with SEFH’s Governance Board, SEFH’s workgroup coordinator and SEFH’s Technical Secretariat.
Reaching an agreement with workgroup members regarding the goals to be pursued, the tasks to be carried out and the workplan to be followed.
Preparing an annual report of the activities carried out.
Convening and coordinating workgroup meetings.
Preparing the minutes of the workgroup’s meetings and sending them to SEFH’s technical secretariat.
Supervising the maintenance of the workgroup’s website.
Informing workgroup members about the proceedings of the workgroup meetings, and the projects underway, encouraging them to participate in them.

2.- Functions of the steering committee

The workgroup’s steering committee shall comprise 6-8 members who should be actively involved in the compounding of medicines and who should have extensive experience and an interest in the subject.

Steering committee members shall attend the workgroup’s meetings, actively collaborate with the coordinator and the secretary in setting the workgroup’s annual goals, and make meaningful contributions to the workgroup’s activities.

In addition, each steering committee member shall lead one of the workgroup’s projects with the support and under the supervision of the coordinator and the secretary. To ensure successful completion of the project, they may request the assistance of any workgroup members. Members shall provide a brief report on the status of their project at each workgroup meeting.

3.- Workgroup operational norms and membership renewal

The coordinator and the secretary shall be elected for 2-year terms, which may be extended to a maximum of 4 years. Both shall be elected by the steering committee.

To ensure the renewal of the committee’s membership and the active participation of all interested members, the two most senior members of the committee or, failing that, any members wishing to do so shall give up their position on the committee to two ordinary members every time the coordinator and secretary positions are up for renewal.

Renewals of the steering committee membership shall be publicly announced through SEFH’s mailing list, with the election being the responsibility of the committee, whose members shall make their decision on the basis of the experience and interest of the candidates in the field of pharmaceutical compounding.

The workgroup’s meetings shall be held approximately every 3 months at SEFH’s headquarters in Madrid. The meetings shall be attended by the coordinator, the secretary and all other workgroup members. SEFH’s Governance Board representative to the workgroup shall also be invited.

4.- Relationship with SEFH’s Governance Board

The workgroup shall have two primary interlocutors with SEFH’s Governance Board:

SEFH’s workgroup coordinator
SEFH’s Governance Board representative to the workgroup, who shall be appointed by SEFH’s Governance Board and who shall participate in the workgroup’s meetings in representation of the Governance Board to ensure proper communication between the workgroup and the said Governance Board.

5.- Member participation

Member participation in the pharmaceutical compounding workgroup shall be open and voluntary.

The primary communication channel between the workgroup’s steering committee and its members shall be the section on SEFH’s website specifically dedicated to the workgroup. Members visiting that section shall find information about the workgroup’s projects and the current membership of the steering committee, which they can get in touch with at their convenience.

The steering committee may also use other ICTs such as social media, blogs, etc. they may find useful for disseminating the activities performed by the workgroup.

Active member participation through the proposal of initiatives or by contributing ideas of interest for drug compounding professionals is of vital importance for the workgroup to be able to carry out its activity in an effective way.

Whenever a call for the renewal of the steering committee membership is launched, any member may put forward their candidacy to become part of the committee.

6.- Funding

The workgroup shall be funded by a fixed allowance granted by SEFH to defray the expenses required for the operation of its workgroups. In order to access such funds, the workgroup must every year submit to SEFH’s Governance Board a report of its activities of the previous year and a workplan for the next two years.

The workgroup shall strive to obtain additional funds to those mentioned above in order to embark on more ambitious projects. Such funds may be obtained either from the competitive grants periodically awarded by SEFH or by applying for other kinds of subsidies, grants or awards to fund specific projects.

On exceptional occasions, pharmaceutical companies interested in collaborating with the development of projects undertaken by the pharmaceutical compounding workgroup may be approached for support.

: Published: 16 June 2011

MISSION

To build consensus across hospital pharmacy departments with respect to the main compounding processes and procedures to boost the effectiveness and safety of the final products.
To make available the necessary tools to ensure proper pharmaceutical compounding practice.
Organize training activities on pharmaceutical compounding addressed to technicians and pharmacists.
To conduct and promote pharmaceutical compounding research projects, including the compounding of drugs for clinical trials, in areas of little interest for the pharmaceutical industry.
To foster the establishment of relations with other scientific societies and workgroups with similar goals, and to work toward the standardization of extemporaneous compounding across different levels of care.

CURRENT PROJECTS:

Web-based query form: the workgroup shall work on the design of a query form to be built into SEFH’s website. The form will be connected to a repository that will contain the main extemporaneous formulations prepared by hospital pharmacy departments. SEFH members will be able to use the form to query the data and download the information obtained. The repository will be conceived as a dynamic tool, which should be fed by contributions from all our members.
Pharmaceutical compounding newsletter: the workgroup shall create a newsletter containing relevant information for SEFH members and tips on practical aspects that may help improve their standard of practice.
Queries in SEFH’s mailing list: the large number of queries on pharmaceutical compounding posted in SEFH’s mailing list are testament to SEFH members’ interest in the subject and of the challenges they face in their daily practice. The workgroup shall take on the responsibility of addressing these queries to the best of our ability and build a repository of the most interesting questions and answer for the benefit of the profession as a whole.
Update of the workgroup’s website: our website will be the platform used to communicate with SEFH members and the place where the query form, the newsletter and other tools that may be developed in the future will be hosted.
Training: the workgroup shall organize a pre-congress course in next year’s SEFH National Congress titled “Compounding of sterile preparations.” The course will be addressed to staff and resident pharmacists.

: Published: 16 June 2011

Chair

Silvia Berisa Prado

Silvia is a hospital pharmacist at the Navarre University Clinic (Pamplona). She has long-standing experience in the compounding of drugs for ophthalmologic applications. She has been a member of the workgroup since 2017. Since then, she has designed ophthalmologic treatments and added value to the complex field of ophthalmology and has started working in the budding field of advanced therapies.

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Secretary

Maria Pilar Flox Benitez

As a hospital pharmacist, Maria Pilar is responsible for the new compounding section of the pharmacy department of the Santa Cristina University Hospital (Madrid). She has been a member of the workgroup since 2017 and served as secretary since 2020. She is an ardent advocate of safe and high quality compounding practices.