Save the date: 12th January 2007
What: Medical Media educational briefing
When: 10am to 12pm
Where: The King's Fund, 11-13 Cavendish Square, London
A panel of UK experts explore the latest advances in the fight to conquer heroin dependency from both a patient and prescriber’s perspective
Schering-Plough is pleased to announce a forthcoming medical media education briefing to enable journalists to help their readers gain a deep understanding of the issues around substance misuse in the UK from a select group of experts, both the prescriber’s and patient perspective.
Proposed Programme highlights include:
Substance misuse in the UK:
Dr Chris Ford, will outline the current situation and draw on her many years of experience treating substance misuse, providing an insight on trends, guidelines and good-practice, as well as giving details of a recent ‘Socratic Dialogue’ where experts from various disciplines debated real-world practices around modern maintenance therapy using detailed case-studies.
Dr Chris Ford has been a GP in London for 20 years and works with a large number of drug users in general practice. She is a member and former Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners' (RCGP) Sex, Drugs and HIV Task Group and is Clinical Director of the SMMGP and advisory editor of its newsletter, 'Network.'
Maintenance therapy and its role in rehabilitation – the patient perspective:
Daren Garrett from patient-group, The Alliance, discusses the part that maintenance therapy has to play in treating substance misuse. Hear about the ups and downs of treatment from someone who helped many people through this process.
Daren Garratt is Executive Director of The Alliance and a Director of UKHRA. From 2001 to 2004 he was DAT Co-ordinator for Walsall and also had some responsibility for commissioning adult treatment services. During this period Walsall earned a deserved reputation for developing and delivering innovative and effective user-led harm reduction initiatives.
Introduction to the availability of Suboxone (buprenorphine/naloxone) – the clinical component:
Dr Michael Farrell will provide an overview of Suboxone, a newly launched therapy for opioid addiction containing the partial opioid agonist bupronorphine and the opioid agonist naloxone, which potentially provides medical professionals a new tool for the treatment of opioid addiction in the UK.
Dr Farrell is a Reader in Addiction Psychiatry and Consultant Psychiatrist at the National Addiction Centre, Institute of Psychiatry and Maudsley Hospital, London. He is a co-founder and editor of the Cochrane Collaboration Drug and Alcohol Group. He is a member of the Expert Committee on Drug Dependence at the World Health Organization.
Interactive Q&A session, followed by lunch
For further information, or to confirm your attendance at this medical media educational briefing, please contact:
Neil Beasley (Chandler Chicco Agency)
Tel: +44 (0)20 7632 1803
Fax: +44 (0)20 7632 1801
Email: n.beasley@cca-uk.com
About Schering-Plough
Schering-Plough is a global science-based healthcare company with leading prescription, consumer and animal health products. Through internal research and collaborations with partners, Schering-Plough discovers, develops, manufactures and markets advanced drug therapies to meet important medical needs. Schering-Plough’s vision is to earn the trust of the physicians, patients and customers served by its workforce of more than 30,000 people around the world.
