Last week, Gabrielle Jongeneel visited the ZonMw conference ‘Goed Gebruik Geneesmiddelen (GGG)’. Gabrielle is working on the project ‘Personalized adjuvant treatment in stage II colon cancer’, which is part of the ‘GGG’ program. The conference was dedicated to sharing new insights and use them as an inspiration for future work. Over the day, there were several sessions with inspiring speakers who presented the results of their projects. Gabrielle attended the following sessions:

Session 1: Implementation of pharmacogenetics. Who cares?

The GGG program aims to optimize the use of pharmacotherapy. Pharmacogenetics allows for pharmacotherapy that is better tailored to the individual patient. That is, pharmacists and doctors consider the genetic characteristics of a patient when selecting a drug. Also the dose of the drug can be individualized.

Session 2: Appropriate use of drugs

Within the ‘GGG’ program, an important goal is to gain insight into different ways of using medicines appropriately. In this session, speakers from various parties explained their vision, each from their own perspective, to encourage the appropriate use of medicines from both the health insurance, and the patient perspective.

Session 3: Drugs in elderly

Elderly have specific health problems and react differently to medicines but they are generally underrepresented in clinical trials. Thus, research specifically aimed at older people is essential. The highlight of this session was the presentation of the thesis of Dr. Felice van Erning; ‘Adjuvant chemotherapy among elderly colon cancer patients: from gut feeling towards evidence-based use in clinical practice.’ Felice collaborates with Gabrielle and the findings of Felice will be very useful for our work.

Curious about the developments within our own ZonMw project? Keep checking the site for updates.