Having just posted about special populations I received an email to inform me that a recent paper that was written in conjunction with Sandra Klein at the University of Greifswald has just been published.

Here is a link.

This work specifically explored the impact of malnutrition on drug absorption in children. Malnutrition affects the gastro-intestinal physiology with impacts on every stage from saliva production through the stomach and into the small intestine. These differences mean that orally administered medicines may not be absorbed in the same was as in healthy adults. Most medicines are tested in healthy adults and then the findings used to predict how they are likely to work in a range of different populations. The paper summarized the main differences and where these differences may be important for this most vulnerable population.

This week I attended a meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria as part of the UNGAP project. The European Network on Understanding Gastrointestinal Absorption-related Processes (UNGAP) is a multidisciplinary Network of scientists aiming to advance the field of intestinal drug absorption by focussing on 4 major challenges: (i) differences between specific patient populations, (ii) regional differences along the gastrointestinal tract, (iii) the intraluminal behaviour of advanced formulations, and (iv) the food-drug interface.

I was presenting on administration to “special” populations which encompassed both children and older adults – there are many similarities in these groups and the inclusion of carers in the administration process adds a layer of complexity.

Whilst there I heard many other interesting presentations with particular highlights including reviews on how food can affect drug performance and how we can make models to better predict drug absorption in these special populations.

It was fantastic to hear that outreach to the public is part of the UNGAP project and that there are opportunities to share the amazing work on so many platforms. There was even talk of a comic as an outreach mechanism.

Recently my sister-in-law sent me a diary entry written by my nephew 3 years ago following a trip to Birmingham when he took part in a study I was running. The study was looking at the acceptability of multiparticulates.

I love the fact that his favourite part was getting a wristband and a kinder egg. I should also say that on that date there was a Sikh charity giving out free food which was also a memory for him and me! The study faded into the background as part of his day. However, I do feel like I should send this to an ethics panel to show that their work is valuable as the child who participated felt comfortable with the event and there was no sign of distress. However, I also need to point out that the children were offered fruit as a reward for our study rather than chocolate and that egg was a general treat!

I spent the last 3 days at the European Paediatric Formulation Initiative’s annual conference. This is a meeting dedicated to better understanding of children’s medicines and how we can work to improve them. It was the 10 year anniversary of the meeting so it was an opportunity to celebrate. However, it became apparent that there are still relatively few bespoke age-appropriate medicines available for children and that there is still a long way to go. On the positive side there was so much enthusiasm to get there so I remain hopeful.

A highlight of the meeting was the involvement of 2 young people who were able to chair a panel discussion and contribute to the meeting. In addition it was great to have a parent representative to speak about the day to day tribulations involved in administration of medicines to children.

The meeting closed with a talk by Professor Charles Spence from the University of Oxford. He has looked at how sounds and surroundings impact on taste. Most of his work has been at the high-end restaurants rather than the routine dosing of medicines but there was plenty of food for thought in his presentation. If you want to know more here is a sample of his work:

Tasting spoons: Assessing how the material of a spoon affects the taste of the food, Piqueras-Fiszman et al. Food Quality and Preference 24 (2012) 24–29

I have accepted an invitation to participate in a writing challenge #RxWritingChallenge – 14 days in October for making writing a priority

I hope that this will help me re-engage with writing for research and look at ways to include writing in my every day working life. Hopefully there will be direct benefits to this blog!

I find that writing can be a really therapeutic exercise and helps to organise my thoughts into actions which is always a stress-buster!

We need to celebrate writing and I will ensure that some of my writing is aimed at information for young people 🙂

So happy to share one of my students’ video from a competition to present your whole 3 year PhD project in under 3 minutes

I think she did an excellent job – you can see the video here

If you want to see some other competitors and cast your vote here is the link

The Accept study measured the acceptability of medicines in children and the results are available on this poster

I was really pleased to find a University of Birmingham leaflet in my post yesterday, particularly as it had a short piece on my research.

It included a link to this website.

On the webpages you can see poems that are read by children expressing how they feel about taking medicines on a regular basis. These poems are powerful as they allow children to express themselves in their own language to tell their story. The use of poetry can be a great tool for patients to put their feelings and experiences into their own words.

Poem 1: It makes me feel blue

Poem 2: You ask me why I say No

Poem 3: Medicine medicine

Last week I attended the European Paediatric Formulation Initiative annual conference in Warsaw.

This is always a great meeting full of people working hard to ensure that age-appropriate medicines are available to children. Particular highlights from the meeting included:

An inspirational talk by Catherine Litalien about the specific needs in Canada (http://gpfccanada.com/)- she also shared a video that certainly makes the point in a very emotive way.

I was also inspired by a talk that brought the technology from food sciences (via PepsiCo) into medicines to look at novel ways to mask the taste of medicines.

Another highlight was hearing the story of the development of a new formulation of hydrocortisone to provide parents/carers and most importantly children with an easier way to take their medicines. Martin Whitaker told the story of Infacort(R) and the plans for this to be available for children and families very soon.

Some of my own work was shared via my research students. Justyna Czarnocka gave an excellent presentation on measuring the mouthfeel of films using tribology to optimise new formulations for children. Cameron Watson won a poster prize for his work describing how parents currently administer hydrocortisone to their children and the accuracy of the dosing.

Last week I attended the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health annual conference. This forum brings together researchers passionate about the health of children.

I was particularly inspired by the young people from TRANSform talking about issues in transgender teenagers and providing a voice – all very powerful.

There were whole sessions planned by young people and this should become the norm going forwards

http://www.rcpch.ac.uk/improving-child-health/us-voice-children-young-people-and-families/us-voice-children-young-people-an