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DTRHUEGREUSPIDDAETNETS’S CUBICLE
Advice for Staying Up to Date with the Literature
Morgan Belling, PharmD these journals’ websites and specify which HOPA Central feature discussions about
PGY-2 Oncology Pharmacy alerts you’d like to receive (for example, issues in clinical practice, such as strategies
Resident with the New England Journal of Medicine, for mediating drug shortages and use of
WVU Medicine you can sign up for specialty updates in biosimilars among different institutions.
Morgantown, WV Hematology/Oncology and Infectious There are different communities on the
Disease). HOPA Central website you can join to be
Brandi Anders, PharmD involved in more focused discussions.
BCOP Another good website to receive HOPA Central also has a direct link to
Hematology/Oncology updates from is Clinical Care Options (sign HOPA News, which offers a wealth of
Clinical Pharmacist up for oncology-related news at www. important practice-related information.
Wake Forest Baptist Health clinicaloptions.com). From solid tumor to It’s a good idea to join listservs from
Winston-Salem, NC hematological malignancies to supportive organizations that focus on specialties
care, this resource provides a nice overview that you’re particularly interested in. For
Perhaps one of the most important skills of a variety of topics in oncology. Addi- example, the American Society for Blood
you learn during residency is how to tionally, PracticeUpdate Oncology (www. and Marrow Transplantation features a
effectively teach yourself. This is especially practiceupdate.com/explore) highlights pharmacy listserv similar to that of HOPA:
important when you consider how rapidly news from several journals, with links to pharmacists can submit questions and
the field of hematology/oncology phar- these highlighted trials. This website also request feedback from members of several
macy changes, with new drugs constantly different institutions, share ideas, and
being approved by the U.S. Food and Drug “A good place to start is discuss prominent issues.
Administration, novel classes of agents to ask your preceptors
being evaluated in the drug development and mentors how they With all of the information currently
pipeline, and the results of clinical trials available and constant changes in the
being published. Knowing the data, learn- continually educate hematology/oncology pharmacy world,
ing how to interpret that information, and themselves.” keeping on top of the most important con-
applying it to your patient population are cepts can seem overwhelming. That’s why
essential skills of the clinical pharmacist. has useful webinars and interviews with it’s essential to have a good system for sav-
leading practitioners who offer insight ing and organizing this information so that
So what advice would two young prac- into results from recent clinical trials and you can refer back to it. We recommend
titioners offer to students and residents potential implications for clinical practice. creating folders broadly based on different
pursuing a career in hematology/oncology disease states to keep yourself organized.
pharmacy that would help them stay up If you are looking for a valuable For example, have a file for “hematological
to date on the literature? A good place to resource for hematology and bone marrow malignancies”, then separate that into
start is to ask your preceptors and mentors transplantation, sign up for e-mail alerts subfolders for acute myeloid leukemia,
how they continually educate themselves. from Blood, which has a great series of acute lymphoid leukemia, chronic myeloid
These seasoned practitioners have devised review articles—“How I Treat”—that are leukemia, chronic lymphoid leukemia, etc.
methods over the years to ensure that they written by prominent practitioners in that Within your transplant folder, you might
are informed about the most recent events area. From recommendations for treating create folders on different preparative
in their areas of practice, and each precep- relapsed multiple myeloma to comparing regimens, the role of transplant in multiple
tor undoubtedly has different methods tyrosine kinase inhibitors in chronic myeloma or Hodgkin lymphoma, and graft
and resources to achieve this. They have myeloid leukemia to discussing respiratory versus host disease (GVHD), with import-
established a good system for focusing on viral infections in transplant, these articles ant trials saved in each of these subfolders.
the key concepts, while also weeding out are useful reviews that incorporate both Whenever your preceptors e-mail you
unnecessary ancillary information. Learn evidence-based medicine and consider- pertinent articles, they may highlight key
from your preceptors, and then tailor their ations for clinical practice when there are concepts in the body of the e-mail that you
advice to best suit your needs. limited data available to guide you. should be aware of and pay attention to,
such as how the trials impacted practice,
Preceptors are helpful in pointing you In addition to the e-table of contents considerations about the patient popula-
in the right direction in terms of resources and alerts from these journals, listservs tions, and limitations of the trials. It’s a
you should utilize. For example, you can also are a great resource for keeping good idea to save this correspondence, too,
sign up to receive e-mails about the table yourself in the loop! The HOPA listserv and whether by saving it in a Word document
of contents from the most recent issues of or forwarding it to another e-mail address.
high-impact journals such as the New En-
gland Journal of Medicine and the American
Society of Clinical Oncology’s Journal of
Clinical Oncology. Create a free account on
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