The Online Education and Resources Table on the CAPhO website has recently been updated. There are some excellent new accredited programs, along with updates to existing programs. Here are highlights:

Interpersonal Communication And Relationship Enhancement (I*CARE)

This MD Anderson Cancer Center program provides online education designed to improve the communication among cancer patients, their families and their clinical team. Communication skills experts Walter F. Baile, M.D. and Robert Buckman, M. D., Ph.D have created and developed several protocols to be used when communicating with cancer patients. They have also developed video demonstrations of challenging conversations between health care professionals and patients.

Oncology Boot Camps

The Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association (HOPA) has several educational programs called "Boot Camps" that provide good overviews of fundamentals on a variety of supportive care topics. The Boot Camps would be ideal for those new to oncology practice, or those wanting a review.

Helping Oncology Partners through eLearning (HOPE)

Accreditation had previously expired on two of the HOPE modules; Chemotherapy-induced Nausea and Vomiting (CINV) and Molecular Biology of Cancer and Promise of Targeted Therapy. They have now been updated and their accreditation renewed until 2013.

If you have reviewed a continuing education opportunity or resource that you would like to recommend for the Table, please forward it to the CAPhO Association Management Office at info@capho.org. Any other suggestions for additions or changes to this table are also welcome.

Education Chair

I was very fortunate to have been awarded one of the CAPhO grants to be able to attend the NCIC-CTG Spring Meeting in Toronto.

I attended the CRA sessions on the Friday morning and the Pharmacists meeting in the afternoon. I spent most of the day Saturday attending some of the disease site committee meetings - most of my time was spent in the breast and lung meetings.

I met a lot of wonderful, helpful people, some of them I had previously known only be e-mail, so it was nice to be able to put a face to a name.

At one of the CRA session entitled 'Compliance: Common Missteps and How to Avoid Them', they stressed the importance of QA checks. As we all know, it is important to check accountability logs and expiry dates. It was suggested that we should also perform QA checks on our binders. It is important to keep them up to date. Here is a list of things to check:

• Are registration/randomization logos up to date?
• Are all the i's dotted and the t's crossed on the accountability logs?
• Are all the headers filled out?
• If you need an overlabel, is there a sample one in the binder as a reminder?
• Are there extra accountability logs printed out from the NCIC website?
• Is the protocol current?
• Are the updates current?

Here at CancerCare Manitoba, as I am sure at all cancer sites, we are very busy and time is very precious. It is difficult to find time to take on extra tasks, however, I think that it is important to do QA checks. I admit that we have fallen behind on ours and I am going to try my best to find time to not only check accountability logs and expiry dates but also our binders. I firmly believe that this will enable us to not only be better prepared for NCIC audits but also to make sure that all the information in our study binders is current.

I would like to thank CAPhO for giving me the opportunity to be able to attend the NCIC-CTG conference. It was a good opportunity to meet people and exchange ideas and the meetings were informative. The overall experience was great!

Claire Imlah
Pharmacy Technician
CancerCare Manitoba

It was a pleasure to attend my first NCIC Spring meeting in Toronto from April 28 to May 1, 2011. As a Clinical Trials Pharmacy Research Technician for over 10 years, I have had the opportunity to work on many NCIC trials.

The first session I attended was the Pharmacist Network Group Meeting.The meeting was a great opportunity for me to meet and network with other pharmacy representatives from various centres across Canada. The agenda included some very interesting topics such as how to increase the profile of the Pharmacist Network Group, news from the disease site representatives, and a CAPhO update was presented.

I also attended the various disease site group meetings over the course of the three-day conference. This proved to be very challenging as many of the meetings run concurrently, therefore my focus was on attending the meetings most pertinent to my work and our centre.

At the Disease Site Group Meeting, trial updates were presented outlining the closed trials, the status of current trials and what is new and pending. I found it very interesting hearing the outcomes and results from the closed trials that our centre had participated in. The status of current trials was also very interesting as it gave focus to our current workload by providing accrual updates and important timelines. The new and pending trials presentations were very informative as it provided us with a look into the future of trials and the exciting work ahead.

Overall it was a great learning experience and a wonderful opportunity to network with various disciplines within the NCIC group.

I would like to take is opportunity to thank CAPhO once again for the generous travel grant which facilitated my attendance at the NCIC Spring meeting. 

Nancy Drummond-Ivars
Clinical Trial Pharmacy Research Technician
The Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre

National Oncology Pharmacy Symposium 2011

When: November 4 to 6, 2011
Where: Fairmont Chateau Frontenac, Quebec City

Arrive early and stay late - Quebec City is a wonderful place to explore...

Online registration will open in July 2011.