HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Clinical Pharmacology traineeship in Europe. A time to act
Core competencies in Clinical Pharmacology (CP) education are well established but poorly harmonized within European National training programmes. At the same time, opportunities for career development in CP differ to some extent in different countries in Europe. Important concerns regarding pregraduate and postgraduate training need to be raised by CP trainees and addressed in a collaborative approach. Answering to this emerging call for action, the EACPT decided to organize a pre-Congress Meeting to stimulate the international exchange of experiences and collaboration of CP trainees and senior members of the Association, in a bilateral dialogue. The meeting was organized in June 26-27th, 2015 in Madrid. CP trainees were the main actors of this meeting, whereby making their voices audible and addressing their main concerns on CP education and career development to Senior Leader of the EACPT. The creation of a working group of CP trainees was proposed during the discussion, in response to the concerns discussed.
Since then, the early-career working group of EACPT has gathered together young clinical pharmacologists from multiple European countries with joint research activities. As for the premeeting, it has become a well-established tradition of the EACPT congresses.
WHO WE ARE
The group of Early-Career Clinical Pharmacologists is composed of a group of active young professionals.
The aim is to increase collaboration between clinical pharmacologists from different European countries. Currently, the following five scientific subgroups are working on collaborative projects:
- Pharmacogenetics and personalized medicine
- Systematic literature reviews, pharmacoeconomics and outcomes research
- Neuropsychopharmacology
- Clinical pharmacology as a specialty in Europe
- Education
Relevant interactions
We also aim to facilitate mobility and collaboration between young and senior investigators in Clinical Pharmacology. Currently, activity is focused on the following initiatives:
- Mentoring hub with senior clinical pharmacologists as mentors and early-career researchers as mentees
- Improvement of collaboration between research centres in clinical pharmacology in order to provide more opportunities for early-careers
WANT TO JOIN OUR ACTIVITIES?
We are always open for active colleagues to join in our initiatives. We have meetings at least 6-9 times per year and anyone can come to see how we work and then decide on which activities to participate. Please contact the following co-chairs of the early-career working group (ECWG) to be included in the working group:
Laura Aurinsalo, Resident in Clinical Pharmacology, PhD student, Helsinki, Finland
(laura.aurinsalo(at)helsinki.fi)
Andrej Belancic, Specialist in Clinical Pharmacology, PhD student, Rijeka, Croatia
(a.belancic93(at)gmail.com)