The successful applicants for the Pharmacy Practice Research Trust (PPRT) 2007 practice research awards and bursary scheme have been announced.

The first major national evaluation of the new contract for community pharmacy introduced in 2005 has shown that there has been positive progress in consolidating exisiting services and moving towards providing a wider range of pharmacy services and patient choice in primary care. However, there are also areas of the new contract that require more commitment and investment.

Speaking at a dinner organised by the Pharmacy Practice Research Trust to discuss the changing face of professional ethics in healthcare and the research that the Trust has commissioned in this area, Ann Lewis, recently retired Secretary and Registrar of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain said "Pharmacists have to move away from a culture of paternalism to one which embraces the wider focus of multiprofessional working and increasing patient and public expectations but changing the ethos of professionalism is a challenge, not only for pharmacists, but for all healthcare professionals".

If the pharmacy workforce both today and in the future is going to meet the increasing needs and expectations of the NHS, patients and the public, it is important that pharmacy education is innovative and that new developments are shared not only with pharmacy academics but more widely within the profession and outside. In response to this need a compendium of innovative pharmacy education studies Learning from Innovation in Pharmacy Education has been published by the Pharmacy Practice Research Trust.

An evaluation of the New Contractual Framework for Pharmacy in England and Wales commissioned by the Pharmacy Practice Research Trust has recently been completed and according to Marshall Davies, Chair of the PPRT, "the delay is particularly important in light of this research. It will enable the Minister of Public Health to include considerations of these findings as part of her team's further reflections on the conclusions of the Galbraith Retail Pharmacy Review and those of the recent All Party Parliamentary Group for Pharmacy report."

The Pharmacy Practice Research Trust welcomes the All Party Pharmacy Group recommendations for the future of pharmacy published today, the results of which mirror the results of work commissioned by the Trust. The research commissioned by the Trust is now completed and provides robust, evidence-based research on the impact of the contractual framework particularly on enhanced and advanced services, on outcomes for staff and on quality issues.

The current values and ethics of pharmacy practitioners provide a solid base for practice, with pharmacy emerging as a highly responsible and conscientious profession says a report published today by the Pharmacy Practice Research Trust. However, a reorientation of the core values of pharmacy practice is recommended.

A study published today sheds light on the reasons why a new service, Medicines Use Review, has been slow to take off. One in three pharmacies claimed payments for providing the Medicines Use Review service in its first year as part of the new NHS community pharmacy contract. Although the study indicates that progress is being made with the provision of the new service, the numbers of MURs provided represented less than 7% of the allocated maximum funding.