Leaving the CAPhO 2023 conference, Looking Forward to Innovation and Collaboration
My name is Josée Rioux, and I am a pharmacist working with the Nova Scotia Health Cancer Care program. I work with the Provincial Systemic Therapy Team, with a focus on Hematology Order Set development and quality/safety initiatives. This year, I was the very fortunate recipient of the CAPhO Wild Card Travel Grant. With this grant, I attended this year’s annual CAPhO conference, in Toronto. The theme of the conference was “Innovation and Collaboration: Looking forward” and I can confidently say that the CAPhO 2023 Planning Committee achieved their vision.
Many topics were extremely timely and relevant to my provincial cancer care work, such as the session on Current Controversies in Evaluation of Renal function and the session on Dose Banding in Oncology Practice. These topics have provided me with knowledge that will likely help inform some decisions towards the imminent implementation of an Electronic Order Entry system in our province. Learning about artificial intelligence in healthcare was also very interesting and it is probable that I will encounter it at some point in the future.
The BMT 101 Workshop was a great opportunity to discuss the care of these complex patients in different centers across provinces. The resources provided as preparation for the workshop were fantastic and will likely be utilized in our local BMT pharmacist onboarding and training. Another presentation that will likely positively impact our pharmacist onboarding and training, as well as other provincial projects, was the session on the Power of Maximizing Engagement and Energy to Avoid Burn Out. Such an (even more) important subject in this “post” COVID area.
I would like to sincerely thank you once again for the opportunity to attend this amazing conference. It allowed me to build upon my network of connections between other wonderful oncology pharmacists and technicians across the country. This network has been incredibly helpful when it comes to my work with the provincial cancer care program; we have so much to learn from one another!