Project Pharmacist

• A challenging project role within an academic hospital pharmacy.

• A temporary appointment for a duration of 1 year.

• An employment of 0.8 – 1.0 FTE.

• Terms of employment in accordance with the CAO Ziekenhuizen.

• Room for personal development.

• An inspiring work environment in which innovation and collaboration are central.

To start successfully in this role, it is important that you have a good command of the Dutch language (minimum B2 level) due to contact with, among others, patients and colleagues. Additionally, it is a condition that you are allowed to work in the Netherlands (EU/EEA nationality or a valid work permit).

Depending on education and experience, the salary is at least € 4,043 and at most € 6,202 gross per month for a full-time appointment. This salary is exclusive of holiday allowance and an end-of-year bonus of 8.3% of your gross annual salary.

This concerns a temporary employment contract of 1 year for an average of 32-36 hours per week in accordance with article 2.4.2 of the Cao umc. After the initial contract period, if performing well, there is the possibility of extension on a project basis.

As a pharmacist, are you interested in clinical pharmaceutical research, pharmacotherapy, medication safety, and translating scientific insights into daily practice? Are you analytically strong, interested in drug-related problems, and do you want to contribute to innovative solutions for safer and more efficient medication use? Then we are looking for you.

As a project pharmacist, you will work within the hospital pharmacy of Maastricht UMC+ on research projects aimed at better recognizing adverse drug reactions and preventing prescribing cascades. You will combine scientific research, implementation, and collaboration with healthcare providers and patients to develop new knowledge and translate this into practical applications in daily pharmaceutical patient care.

An important starting point within these research programs is that adverse drug reactions are not always recognized in a timely manner by patients or healthcare providers. As a result, complaints may be incorrectly interpreted as a new condition, after which additional medication is prescribed. This phenomenon, also known as a prescribing cascade, can lead to unnecessary medication, extra side effects, reduced quality of life, and higher healthcare costs.

To improve the recognition of side effects and prescribing cascades, you will work on two interconnected research projects.

The first project focuses on the development and evaluation of algorithms that can identify prescribing cascades based on anonymized medication data from community pharmacy. In collaboration with the Stichting Farmaceutische Kengetallen (SFK), prescribing patterns that may indicate potential prescribing cascades will be investigated. Additionally, research will be conducted into how evidence-based knowledge documents can support community pharmacists in assessing signals and implementing appropriate interventions in daily practice.

The second project focuses on improving the recognition of adverse drug reactions by patients. Within this project, an open-source module is being developed within the personal health platform ZorgDoc. Through co-creation with patients, community pharmacists, and other healthcare providers, a digital application is being developed with which potential side effects can be systematically signaled, assessed, and discussed. Following a feasibility study, the application will be evaluated in a cluster-randomized study in primary care. This will investigate the impact on the recognition of side effects, the implementation of interventions, the prevention of prescribing cascades, and healthcare utilization.

Within both projects, you will receive an active role in setting up, conducting, and evaluating scientific research. You will work together with researchers, community pharmacists, general practitioners, medical specialists, patients, and other stakeholders. Additionally, you will contribute to scientific publications, presentations, implementation activities, and the translation of research results into practical tools for healthcare providers.

In addition to the research activities, there may be space to participate in regular pharmacist duties within the hospital pharmacy, such as day shifts, for approximately 0.2 FTE. Consequently, this position offers a unique opportunity to combine research activities with work in direct patient care.

• Coordinating and conducting research projects in the field of adverse drug reactions, prescribing cascades, and medication safety.

• Contributing to research design, data collection, analyses, and interpretation of research data.

• Supporting the development, evaluation, and implementation of innovative methods for recognizing adverse drug reactions and prescribing cascades.

• Conducting and supervising user research, feasibility studies, and practical evaluations.

• Maintaining contacts and collaborating with community pharmacies, general practitioners, medical specialists, patients, and other stakeholders.

• Supporting community pharmacists with medication reviews and pharmacotherapeutic decision-making regarding adverse drug reactions and prescribing cascades.

• Contributing to scientific publications, reports, presentations, and knowledge sharing.

• Translating research results into practical applications and quality improvement within pharmaceutical patient care.

• Thinking along about further scaling up, implementation, and future research projects.

• Possibly performing regular pharmacist duties within the hospital pharmacy, such as day shifts (approximately 0.2 FTE).

For this position, we are looking for an enthusiastic and analytically strong pharmacist who enjoys contributing to innovation in pharmaceutical care.