Two members of the OHBP (Prof Sharon Pfleger and Dr Lydia Niemi) attended the European Drug Utilisation Conference EuroDURG 2025: Bridging Data, Policy and Patients in Drug Utilisation Research in Uppsala, Sweden. EuroDURG is a special interest group of the International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology, and is focussed on drug utilisation research and topics such as adherence, polypharmacy, safety, medicine accessibility, as well as pharmaceuticals in the environment and crisis preparedness. This year, the EuroDURG conference was attended by more than 340 participants from 38 countries and has thus achieved the highest attendance rate in its history. Sharon and Lydia promoted ongoing work in Scotland to improve rational and sustainable prescribing in Scotland to reduce pharmaceutical pollution and protect planetary health.
Sharon presented the Scottish Government’s Realistic Medicine agenda as an invited keynote speaker in the “Quality use of Medicines” session, while Lydia presented on collaborative work of the OHBP to address pharmaceutical pollution in the water environment through the One Health approach (“Drugs and Environment” session).
Lydia also co-lead the “Environment in Drug Utilisation Research” educational session and workshop with colleagues from Uppsala University and the University of Novi Sad. 35 participants attended the 1.5 hr workshop, which included interactive group activity and case study assessment on prescription data and environmental monitoring data to develop strategies for more sustainable prescribing of high risk medicines.
The conference concluded with the “One Health and Drug Utilisation Research” session – where Sharon participated in a panel discussion promoting the OHBP and providing practical actions for prescribers and healthcare professionals to work together to protect public health and environmental health.
For more information on the conference please see the conference website: EuroDURG 2025 – Uppsala University