The International Journal of Pharmacy Practice 2006; Supplement 2 B1

IJPP 2006, 14: B1© 2006 The Authors

Introduction: pharmacy practice research 2006

The supplement

This publication contains abstracts of the pharmacy practiceresearch papers and posters presented at the 2006 BritishPharmaceutical Conference, held in Manchester, England,September 4–6. Abstracts have been published as an annualsupplement to the International Journal of Pharmacy Practice(IJPP), a sister publication of The Pharmaceutical Journalsince 2001.

In a continuation of previous practice, this supplement hasbeen prepared early enough to allow its advance distributionto participants in the conference practice research sessions –hence the appearance (on pages B3–B4) of the programmefor the practice research sessions, even though IJPP subscrib-ers may not receive the supplement until after the conference.

The abstracts

A record 150 abstracts were submitted for BPC 2006, and thisyear the Society’s pharmacy practice research adjudicating panelaccepted 115 for poster or oral presentation at the Conference.Readers should note that, since the abstracts have alreadybeen examined by the adjudicating panel, they have notpassed through the peer review process applied by the IJPP toall other contributions. The journal cannot therefore guaranteethat they meet its usual stringent requirements.

The abstracts have, however, been subjected to a full editingprocess and, as far as possible, put into the normal IJPPeditorial style. Authors were asked to limit the length of theircontribution to allow each abstract to fit on to a single page ofthis supplement. A few abstracts, however, exceeded thespecified maximum length and have had to be compressed orcut to fit onto a page.

While most abstracts are classified as Practice Research,authors can submit abstracts that describe ProfessionalDevelopment and Audit or Research in Progress. Several ofthe abstracts contained in the supplement fall into these twocategories.

Spread over the three days of the conference there are, thisyear, five separate practice research sessions for the oralpresentation of accepted papers. These 30 abstracts (B9–B39)are listed in this supplement in the order in which they appearin the programme. The remaining 85 abstracts are those pre-sented as posters, beginning with Practice Research posters(pages B41–B92), followed by Professional Developmentand Audit posters (pages B93–B120) and concluding withResearch in Progress posters (pages B121–B128).

Medal lecture

This year’s prestigious Practice Research Medal (sponsoredby Chemist & Druggist) has been awarded to Rob Horne,Professor of Psychology in Health Care at the University ofBrighton. His keynote lecture, entitled ‘From pharmacy topsychology and back again: researching the psychology ofmedicines usage and implications for pharmacy practice’,will be delivered on September 6, 2006 at BPC 2006. Anoutline of the lecture, drawing on over a decade of personalresearch on adherence and prescribing, is included in thissupplement. Highly relevant to the conference theme thisyear, the research described promises to be both interestingand highly relevant to practitioners and policy makers.

Dr Karen HassellChair of the Practice Research Adjudicating Panel

and BPC 2006 Practice Chair