More than 120 healthcare professionals and students attended the 1st “Social and Sanitary relevance of osteoarthritis” conference, held in Tenerife

The Salón de Grados at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Universidad de La Laguna hosted last Thursday the “socio-sanitary relevance of osteoarthritis” conference which brought to the Canary Islands up to date information about the latest advances in the treatment of that disease. The conference was organized by the Grupo de Investigación de Desarrollo Galénico de Medicamentos, formed by researchers belonging to the Chemistry Engineering and Pharmaceutical Technology Departments of the University of La Laguna (Canary Islands).

The conference was attended by some 120 healthcare professionals and final year medicine students. The conference surpassed all expectations of the organizing committee, as they had to increase the number of available places.

There were discussed the causes, treatments and effects of osteoarthritis from different points of view such as the rheumatologists’ views on treatment, therapeutic drug monitoring and its adverse effects, when to stop it and its efficacy, and current state of basic osteoarthritis research.

The conference was inaugurated by Dr. Martínez Carretero, Dean at the Faculty of Pharmacy, and by Dr. Fariña Espinosa, director of the conference.

The first session discussed aspects related to the social and pharmacoeconomic aspects of osteoarthritis. Dr. Puig-Junoy, teacher at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra and Director of the Research Centre in Economy and Health (CRES), and Dr. Llabrés, professor in pharmaceutical technology at the Universidad de La Laguna, highlighted the limitations of the studies assessing social costs of osteoarthritis as well as the need for a correct selection of variables in pharmacoeconomic studies.

Dr. García Castellano, from the Department of orthopaedic and trauma surgery at the Complejo Hospitalario Universitario Insular-Materno Infantil, presented the latest advances in molecular research to modify the disease’s course. Its lecture was followed by a round table discussion that was moderated by Dr. Del Castillo, medical Director at the San Juan de Dios Hospital. Both Dr. Elisa Trujillo, rheumatologists at the HUC (Tenerife) as well as Dr. García Acosta, rehabilitator at the ICOT Clinique (Las Palmas) noted the importance of personalized monitoring of patients and that of the role of primary care professionals. Ríos Rull and García Collado, pharmacists at the SCS and SAS, explained the criteria used to select which drugs could be financed by the National Health System. They also highlighted the importance of pharma-therapeutic monitoring in chronic pain patients.