SHARP 2025: Sharing insights and exploring solutions

The first ever Strengthening Health with Research in Pharmacy (SHARP) Symposium delivered on its mission to showcase the latest Canadian pharmacy research and explore how these projects can inform policy decisions.

Some 150 pharmacy professionals from academia, industry and pharmacy associations across Canada gathered in Niagara Falls, Ontario, for the inaugural event this past June, which was hosted by the Canadian Foundation for Pharmacy (CFP), the Association of Faculties of Pharmacy of Canada (AFPC) and the Ontario Pharmacy Evidence Network (OPEN).

“The quality of the research that was presented was impressive, but more importantly, it was impactful,” says Nancy Waite, co-founder of OPEN and a professor and Associate Director Clinical Education at the University of Waterloo’s School of Pharmacy. “It showcased the patient experience, the pharmacist’s readiness and feedback on new services, and had interesting policy implications.”

“This event brought pharmacists from across the country and from different sectors of the profession together to engage in great discussions and enjoy some marvellous presentations,” says CFP Executive Director Linda Prytula. “I have no doubt that this inaugural event will become an annual one!” 

The three host organizations and broad representation on the planning committee resulted in more creative ideas for content and networking. “Hearing the innovative—and different—research that is being done in provinces from coast to coast was inspiring and motivating,” says Waite.

From Toronto, Daphne To, a researcher at the University of Toronto and Women’s College Hospital, shared her team’s findings around minor ailment services, noting that corporate-owned pharmacies represented close to two-thirds of claims for minor ailment services. Furthermore, the majority of the claims were from pharmacies in urban areas. Get more details here in coverage by CanadianHealthcareNetwork.ca. Further research will investigate the root causes of why certain types of pharmacies are more likely to make minor ailment claims than others.

From Nova Scotia, clinical pharmacist and study author Mackenzie d’Entremont-Harris highlighted some telling results from a pilot project that allowed four community pharmacies in the Halifax Regional Municipality to offer self-testing for chlamydia and gonorrhea. Seventeen per cent had positive test results (14% for chlamydia and 3% for gonorrhea), compared to typical test positivity rates among the general population of 4% for chlamydia and 0.4% for gonorrhea. Learn more in this article by CanadianHealthcareNetwork.ca.

Other oral presentations included an evaluation of the Pharmacist Care Clinic Pilot in New Brunswick, screening for poverty and related social determinants of health by community pharmacists and building pharmacy services in a remote Indigenous community.

The plenary and oral presentations were supplemented by panel discussions, conversation tables, poster sessions and networking breaks. Waite says the conversation tables really enabled networking and discussions that were “lively and engaging,” while the poster authors were available to interact with delegates and answer questions.