“APOTECACommunity ON THE ROAD” began last Monday from Ancona hospital. The Loccioni humancare team met up with oncology department and pharmacy service representatives. Haematology clinicians will be meeting tomorrow.

The first appointment was very successful, Loccioni humancare collected a lot of information with the goal to better optimize the patient therapy workflow especially offering a more humanized assistance to the patient.

APOTECACommunity goes on the road and visits every clinic using APOTECAchemo.
The tour is going to start next Monday 23rd January with Ancona hospital alpha site, , and will be meeting all members hospitals of the Italian APOTECACommunity. The final step is planned to be the 1st March by Macerata hospital, the last center taking up APOTECAchemo.  

Itinerant APOTECACommunity final target is to collect feedbacks about the last up-grade installed as well as all suggestions from the working field in order to optimize at best the treatment onco-haemathology workflow and identify the new frontiers of the health care and patients assistance.

The tour will be the right opportunity to deliver a new disposable, as a  result of the ideas and proposals collected during the last APOTECACommunity meeting. It is a dosage appliance with the needle already screwed on the syringe, properly sterilized and ready for use which is able to make the technician activity at APOTECAchemo faster, more efficient and safer.
Wishing to ourselves: good APOTECACommunity to everybody!

Steps scheduling.

Monday  23rd January AOU United Hospital of Ancona
Tuesday 31st January San Camillo-Forlanini of Rome  �
Wednesday 1st February IFO of Rome
Thursday 2nd February Umberto I Policlinico of Rome
Friday 3rd February Asl 3 of Foligno
Wednesday 8th February p.o. San Vincenzo of Taormina
Thursday 9th February AO Bianchi Melacrino Morelli of Reggio Calabria
Friday 10th February AOR San Carlo of Potenza
Wednesday 15th Febraury IRST of Meldola
Thursday 16th February AO Bolognini of Seriate
Friday 17th February IEO of Milan
Tuesday 21st February USL 6 of Livorno
Wednesday 22nd February IRCCS San Martino – IST of Genoa
Friday 24th Febraury ASL 01 L’Aquila
Thursday 1st March  z.t. 9 of Macerata

APOTECACommunity on the road agenda could be subjected to small changes depending on the needs and professional commitments of the people involved.

“When the game generates health” is the title of an article published on Il Sole 24 Ore Sanità (a weekly medical supplement of Il Sole 24 Ore, the Italian economical newspaper relative to the period 20th December – 2nd January) whose theme is the relevance of the “gamification” used to orient the social habit.

In fact, in a study realized by Jane McGonigal in 2011 , the play component comes up as helping in understanding nowadays world and stimulating the virtual social behaviors.
According to the designer/researcher, the game engages and stimulates people as a whole perceiving it as a memorable moment.

For these reasons in the last years “Serious Game” has become a hot topic, the two words identifying the games that do not merely entertain but take care of relevant social, political and economical themes. In fact, the possibility to promote the health care with the gamification could be taken in consideration.

The Serious Game (word introduced by Woodrow Wilson Center for International scholars in Washington D.C. in 2002) could be a useful instrument to: publicize the good public award, modify a behavior and the political, spiritual and social improvement of an individual or a society.

In this way,, the clinics from Modena experimented the use of game dynamics in 2011 in order to spread good style life during the territorial program “Comunicazione e Promozione della Salute” (Health Communication and Promotion).
Two games were realized in November and December. The format was multiple-choice questions focused on health and sustainable style life. At the end of the game it could be possible to check out the right answers with links on each topic. 

The games gained a considerable success (2,040 people participated to it) and they were really appreciated by the female public. It was considered as a playful, efficient and fast learning method by the public opinion advising to consult and use them constantly. Someone suggested those kinds of games in educative spaces considering them very useful. 

The initiative of Modena demonstrates as there are all the assumptions to start and develop the real health game.

The 1st and 2nd December the annual meeting of PharmacOn, il laboratorio di idee in farmacia oncologica (the laboratory of ideas in oncologic pharmacy) organized by Roche under the patronage of  SIFO (Italian Society of Hospital Pharmacy and of Pharmaceutical Services of Sanitary Company) took place at Cenobio dei Dogi hotel of Camogli.

Dr. Andrea Marinozzi, Dr. Carla Masini and Dr. Sabrina Beltramini spoke during the IV session titled “Managing and organization aspects  and operative experiences” moderated by Dr. Angelo Palozzo. The topic was “New technologies: professional contributes” and they shared the respective experiences in hospital pharmacy with APOTECA System installed.

Dr. Marinozzi explained the whole development and implementation workflow of APOTECA System at his pharmacy made possible through the lab of ideas placed at United Hospitals of Ancona since the beginning of the private-public collaboration between the hospital and Loccioni humancare.

Dr. Masini working at IRST hospital of Meldola showed the study she is doing on automated compound assets compared with manual compounding. While carrying out this analysis she is considering timing and control safety aspects. Although it is not finished yet, the partial results are very positive as APOTECA was installed in a completely computerized and integrated context.

From IRCCS AOU San Martino – IST of Genoa where APOTECA has been installed for more one year, Dr. Beltramini elucidated as she organized the pharmacy activity in order to totally integrate automation to the daily compounding activity. In a very short time at IST of Genoa it was possible to have the automation running at the top speed thanks to the computerized  integration from prescription to administration, a relevant point to guarantee the best safety.

The speeches  were so successful to generate growing animated and interesting discussions among spectators and speakers.

The F.I.A.S.O. meeting titled “The best Sanitary in practice” (La Buona Sanità in Pratica) took place last 6th December in Rome. In that instance Osservatorio F.I.A.S.O. introduced the results of their survey about best practice in Italian sanitary system.

AOU United hospitals of Ancona distinguishes itself in more categories: two awards in Local Assistance, one in Pertinence and Quality of cares, one in Technological Innovation and two in Management Efficiency, one given to APOTECA, Loccioni humancare System compounding anticancer drugs in automated way and integrating the whole onco-hematology workflow.
The awards were a relevant result for Ancona hospital reached thanks to Gino Tosolini, the ex-General Director missed some months ago but greatly commemorated by Giovanni Monchiero, President of F.I.A.S.O.

The book “Libro bianco della Buona Sanità” which resumes all best cases collected by Osservatorio F.I.A.S.O, has in fact, been dedicated to Dr. Tosolini memory. He has been a good example of human and professional person in service of sanitary system promoting the best practice. His qualities are demonstrated by the experiences of his hospital proposed to the Osservatorio.

Among the participants to the event: Valerio Fabio Alberti (Vice President of F.I.A.S.O. and  Manager of the Osservatorio), Fosco Foglietta (President of CUP 2000), Nicola Pinelli (Director of F.I.A.S.O. research) and Americo Cicchetti (Professor of Industrial Organization at Cattolica Sacro Cuore University of Rome). They showed the Osservatorio goals spotting  the methodology of selection and evaluation of all the experiences applied.

The speech of sociologist Domenico De Masi was largely interesting. He spoke about “The knowledge management in complex systems: evaluation and communication” introducing 10 new trends and anticipating the society of 2020.

The congress closed with the round table moderated by Ferdinando Romano (Vice-President of F.I.A.S.O.) and with the participation of Fulvio Moirano (Director of AGENAS), Teresa Petrangolini (National Secretary of Cittadinanzattiva), Annalisa Silvestro (President of IPASVI) and Domenico Iscaro (National President of ANAAO Assomed).

Yesterday 22nd November the Ruban d’Honneur ceremony took place at Hotel Rey Juan Carlos I where APOTECA project received the award of EBA -European Bussiness Awards in the category “The UKTI Award for Innovation”.

The finalists at the ceremony represented companies that, although exposed at the recent economical storm, have a combined turnover of  trillion Euro (the 8,23% of European GDP*)

Claudio Loccioni, Loccioni humancare director: “ It is a very relevant goal to receive this award for humancare, the division of Loccioni Group. This prize represents the significant result of a collaboration between a private company and public clinics: a mixed Community in order to realize a perfect solution: APOTECA, the automated System preparing and managing chemotherapy drugs.
It is a demonstration as a local project becomes global and as a ten-year experience with international industrial partners in terms of performance, efficiency, quality, safety and traceability could be transferred from one field to another. We would like to share this award with each APOTECACommunity member since APOTECA guarantees and will continue to guarantee safety, performance and innovation thanks to the scientific network and to the common passion for the innovative solutions.”

* The European GDP include Turkey, Armenia and Kazakhstan.

The 17th November, Dr. Anna Maria Cinzia Ciraldo pharmacist manager at Antiblastic Drugs Unit of San Vincenzo Hospital of Taormina hold the third and last lesson by the University of Messina in occasion of the hospital pharmacy specialization course of Prof. Mariaelena Galati.

“APOTECA: the automation at the service of oncologic department of Taormina” was the title of the first lesson starting from the description of “Antiblastic Drugs Unit” (U.F.A. in Italian) to that of automation inside pharmacy.

The two themes of automation and centralization represent very important aspects Dr. Ciraldo well exposed, by explaning positive aspects such as the increasing quality of preparations, the extended safety for patients and technicians and the reduced deal of wastes.
The doctor showed the important concept of safety in APOTECAchemo system, the robot for the automatic compound of chemotherapy drugs , very useful to get totally safe customized therapy preparations without contamination risk for the operator working at the system.
The rule of the pharmacist has been increased in value with the introduction of the robot in the unit: focused on more relevant activities related to his professional expertise, the pharmacist has less control duties.
When APOTECA is installed the pharmacy activities must be re-organized in order to get an optimization of the whole therapy processes and an improvement of care quality given to the patient; in fact, each preparation dosage is completely traced and verified by different control systems.

Dr. Ciraldo brought a small excellence from Sicily to the university: Taormina Hospital is the only clinic of the island to own APOTECAchemo.

In the following lessons the attention was on drugs and on incompatibility and stability of the chemotherapic in solution drugs and on all phases and issues of therapy compound.

The main topic of the second lesson was the Oncology Drugs Register undergoing a strict monitoring. Dr. Ciraldo put the stress on what they are, on the reasons for compounding them and on how they should be used.

Yesterday 8th November, within the column dedicated to medicine during the national broadcast of RAI1, a special about the chemotherapy care during pregnancy was on the air, and APOTECAchemo by Loccioni humancare has been introduced, too.

The oncologist Dr. Lucia Del Mastro of IST – National Institute for the Research on Cancer of Genoa exposed  the new anticancer cares which allow to become mother during the chemotherapy.
The totally computerized and integrated oncologic workflow from prescription to administration at IST of Genoa has been shown during the broadcast column.
The whole therapy is fully controlled and safe as APOTECAchemo System has been installed in the institute pharmacy thanks to the director Dr. Maria Attialia Grassi and Dr. Sabrina Beltramini.
As Dr. Beltramini explained, the System automates a process which is normally realized manually by a technician. It is a very high risk procedure since chemotherapy drugs are extremely toxic.

The use of this last generation robot is therefore relevant for the compound of anticancer drugs thus confirming once again the consolidated quality of IST services.

Play the video

The 43rd edition of SIE National Congress (Italian Society of Hematology) took place at Naples from 16th to 19th October.

During the 5th nursing session titled “Good Practice in Management of Vascular Accesses” moderated by Angela Trunfio of United Hospitals of Bergamo and E. Fina of St. G. Moscati Hospital of Avellino, Dania Comparcini and Francesca Belli both of University Hospital of Ancona introduced “APOTECA technology to manage antiblastic drugs”. They spoke about the result of a survey which demonstrates as the error risk has been decreased in hematology workflow in Ancona Hospital by introducing APOTECA system.

A questionnaire handed out to nurses of hematology department and day hospital reveals as the bar-code use during the administration phase reduces the risks related to the correct identification of the patient and to the chemotherapic cycles time of administration.
From the survey it came out as in the day hospital where the computerization has been started a long time ago, nurses have more time to dedicate to their patients. The quality of the service offered was increased thanks to APOTECA platform which runs at top speed.

A very important aspect is the involvement of the professional clinics and the impact of technology on nursing daily activities since they are relevant to reach qualitative and everyday higher standards through the active collaboration with all the operators.