Adding years to life and life to years

As the NHS reaches its 60th year and healthcare practitioners and policymakers across the world strive to provide the highest quality care for all, BPC will examine how pharmacy and the pharmaceutical sciences are helping to add years to life and life to years of the UK population.

Over the last six decades, advances in pharmaceutical science have increased survival rates in all the major disease areas. Each year, new developments emerge that add to these successes but increasingly, attention is also being paid to adding quality to the lives of patients and increasing healthspan for all. Pharmacists working in community, primary care, hospital, industry and academic sectors have an important role to play in this area: from pharmacists working alongside other healthcare professionals to promote healthy lifestyles and improve the use of medicines, to leading edge scientific discoveries to improve drug therapies, rapid diagnosis, tissue regeneration and reconstruction. BPC 2008 will outline the developments in both the science and practice of improving survival and quality of life.

As people survive longer, so the challenge to care for an increasingly
ageing population increases. More and more scientists and practitioners have to consider the cost implications of this conundrum and increasingly, the evidence-base for all interventions is becoming of paramount importance. BPC 2008 will debate these issues and provide opportunities for discussion.

Using case studies, latest research in presented papers and posters, cutting edge symposia and workshop sessions, BPC 2008 will provide a highly stimulating and informative setting for the in-depth, cross-disciplinary discussion of all these issues.