Nenad Miljković

Research should foster, assure and improve continuity of patient care at all times.

Nenad Miljković, PharmD, MPH, the Head of the Hospital Pharmacy Services at the Institute of Orthopaedic Surgery Banjica, Belgrade, the Director of Finance of the European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) and the President of the Hospital Pharmacy Section at the Pharmaceutical Association of Serbia says that being an IMA finalist is a great privilege for him both professionally and personally. It also demonstrates that research aiming at securing patient safety through collaborative work of pharmacists, physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals during times of medicine shortages is recognised.

The study he and his team performed established prospective risk assessment during medicine shortages to be a valuable, but also a resource-intensive and time-consuming process. Due to resource constraints, it may not be possible or desirable to conduct a prospective risk assessment for every shortage. However, for critical or essential medicines it is crucial to have a ready-to-use substitute based on the risk assessment. Moreover, potential risks of substitutes on patient health should be identified before a shortage occurs and the substitute is dispensed as the alternative.

The findings of the study will provide healthcare professionals with an overarching framework on how to quickly establish a system/task force groups and initiate risk assessment before they routinely perform therapeutic substitutions when a shortage occurs.

Dr. Miljković points out that there is a growing awareness of how important it is to not only conduct research, but also how to make it comprehensible to the general public. 

The initial thoughts on conducting research originate from my undergraduate studies. However, this interest grew more during my European Public Health Erasmus Mundus master programme where I had a chance to participate in multidisciplinary international research projects,

he says and adds that the most pleasurable aspect of his work is the thought that even when doctors face a dreadful medicine shortage, pharmacists at the Institute of Orthopaedic Surgery Banjica are able to overcome it and provide an optimal treatment to patients.

As far as the impressive development in pharmacology is concerned, Dr. Miljković presumes that chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) is a rapidly emerging field where CAR-T cell therapies really make a difference by linking cellular pharmacodynamics to pharmacokinetics and antitumor effects.

In his spare time, Dr. Miljković does a lot of sports.

Swimming is always on the top of my list, even before running. However, this year running has become first while I wait to travel again with my family and friends. Moreover, I am a great fan of watching films. I adore European cinematography with Pedro Almodovar, Claude Chabrol and Francois Ozon as my favourite film directors.