For healthcare professionals

Article 1 – Overview

The Thea ‘Passionate about Preservative Free’ campaign is designed to encourage thought, discussion and sharing of best practice in ophthalmology eye care between March 20th 2021 and November 30th 2021.

Participants present clinical cases they were involved in and which demonstrate an improvement to a patient involving the change from preserved eye drops to preservative free eye drops.

Cases are submitted to a national selection board of ophthalmologists, which selects the 3 best presentations. 3 prizes of unrestricted educational grants of £1000 are available.

Registration and case study submissions are made online at www.thea-pharmacuticals.co.uk/preservative-free.

Article 2 – Participants

Candidates must be UK based registered healthcare professionals working in eye care.

A candidate can only submit one case.

Article 3 – Submission of case

The case report can involve one or several patients.

Submitted cases must be original (i.e. not previously published). The case can include presentations, diagnoses and/or management of ocular disease and must be related to the benefit of preservative free medications on the eye and the wider benefit to the patient.

A dedicated website will inform the candidates of the rules of the contest. Candidates have to register online and submit their case written in English on this website before November 30th, 2021.

The case must be submitted by the candidate who must be the author and should not be submitted by anyone else on their behalf. Co-authors can be declared however the grant will be attributed exclusively to the main author who submitted the case.

The author must declare any competing interests.

When submitting their presentation online, the candidate:

  • certifies that they have legal capacity to participate in the contest;
  • shall not breach any confidentiality agreement with their employer or any other third party;
  • fully accepts the current rules;
  • certifies that they were personally and directly involved in the management of the case;
  • certifies that the submitted case is original and has not been previously published ;
  • certifies they have any and all authorization and approval to include the corresponding documentation (photos, video, etc.) in the case report
  • shall indemnify, defend and hold Thea Pharmaceuticals harmless from and against any and all third party claims, suits, proceedings, damages, costs, liabilities and expenses (including, without limitation, reasonable attorneys' fees) arising from their negligence or willful misconduct in connection with the Passionate about Preservative Free mission.

If there is any interest which might be considered prejudicial to the independence of a candidate, such conflict of interests should lead to the rejection of the candidate.

Subject to UK legislation or to any code of conduct regarding medical professionals in the UK, the candidate certifies that such regulation doesn’t prevent him/her from participating in the contest, in particular in consideration of his/her status as resident. Should UK regulations require that the candidate declares or asks prior approval for his/her participation in the contest, the candidate shall be responsible for such declaration and shall keep available to THEA the proof of such procedure.

Thea Pharmaceuticals shall comply with applicable UK law, regulation or code of conduct regarding the declaration to a medical council or any competent entity where the resident or fellow is registered and with the reporting and declaration to a public audience or a competent authority of any interests it may have with the resident or fellow.

Article 4 – Case structure

The presentation should be written in English in Word format. Illustration of the case by pictures and imaging is recommended. A maximum of 10 pages is allowed. The clinical case should be divided into the following sections (in this order):

  • Title page: with the title of the case without identification of the author.
  • Introduction: The introduction section should explain the background of the case, including the disorder, usual presentation and progression and an explanation of the presentation and the relevant side effects and effect of these on the quality of life of the patient(s).
  • Case presentation with illustrations and figures: The case presentation should contain a description of the patient's relevant demographic information (without adding any details that could lead to the identification of the patient); any relevant medical history of the patient; the patient's symptoms and signs; any tests that were carried out and a description of any treatment or intervention. If it is a case series, then details must be included for all patients. Cases can include clinical photographs, provided these are accompanied by written consent to publish from the patient(s) or are completely anonymous. Details of preservative-related toxicity manifestation and effect on quality of life should be added.
  • Discussion: This is for additional comments that provide any additional relevant information not included in the case presentation, and that put the case in context or that explain specific treatment decisions.
  • Conclusion: A brief conclusion of what can be learned from the case report and what the clinical impact will be/was. Information should be included on how it could advance knowledge and awareness of preserved drop side effects and their impact on patients. This section should state clearly the main conclusions of the case report and give a clear explanation of their importance and relevance.

The full author's name, qualifications, institutional addresses, current position they hold at institutions or societies, or any other relevant background information and email addresses must not be included in the case presentation to ensure anonymous and impartial judging of the submission.

The presentation and appendix (image, figures, illustrations ,…) shall:

  • be anonymous
  • not infringe upon the privacy or personal rights of others
  • not contain any sensitive information
  • not be the copyright of any other entity unless this is acknowledged

Article 5 – Process

The selec­tion of the best cas­es will be com­plet­ed in the first week of Decem­ber 2021.

Winners will be notified by email.

The national jury will have access to all clinical cases through the website.

Contestants will remain anonymous until the end of the contest. To ensure an independent and fair vote, initials will be allocated to each submission. These initials will be used throughout the entire process and will not be disclosed to the contestant nor the juries.

Thea Pharmaceuticals will not release any information that might help identify the contestants. Likewise, members of the juries will remain anonymous to the contestants.

The evaluation will be based on the following criteria to obtain a final mark out of one hundred:

  • originality
  • clarity
  • demonstration of contribution to patient quality of life
  • illustrations

The board shall select the winners in November 2021. The decision of the jury will be final and binding.

Winners will be informed by email before December 1st 2021.

Article 6 – Important dates

November 30th, 2021 – deadline for submission of the cases November 2021 – selection of the best cases by national juries December 2021 - award of unrestricted educational grant

Article 7 – Awards

Cases of each winner will be published on the Thea UK website.

All best cases will be published in materials created and published by Thea and distributed at congresses, online via our website and may be used for other educational and promotional purposes.

Article 9 – Intellectual property

Thea Pharmaceuticals reserves the right to use and reproduce the clinical cases with the pictures included and the name and photograph of participants in order to organize public relations activities.

For this purpose, by accepting the present terms and conditions, the Participant expressly and irrevocably grants to Thea Pharmaceuticals a royalty free, irrevocable and worldwide license to use all or parts of the intellectual property rights (writing, drawings and models, pictures, etc.) arisen from the establishment of the case report.

This license is granted for the legal duration of protection of the licensed rights as defined by the UK Passionate about Preservative Free 2021.

Intellectual Property Code.

The licensed rights pertaining to the case report includes notably:

  • The reproduction right, meaning the right to reproduce or to have reproduced, in a number at THEA's convenience, the elements of the case report either in

whole or in part, on any known or unknown tangible supports, such as paper format or electronic format;

  • The right of representation, which is the right to release or to have released publicly the elements of the case report either in whole or in part, either alone or associated with other elements, by any tangible means, including on the Internet; this right notably implies the rights for Thea Pharmaceuticals to publish, diffuse, and edit any document containing the elements of the case report either in whole or in part;
  • The right of adaptation which is the right to directly or indirectly adapt the elements of the case either in whole or in part on any supports, including notably the right to modify them and to insert them into other documents or elements;
  • The right to translate into any language including computer language the elements of the case either in whole or in part.

The participant declares to be the sole holder of the intellectual property rights on the contents of the elements of the case report and declares that the aforesaid the elements of the case report do not include any reproduction and/or adaptation of any work of the mind of third parties in whole or in part or more generally, any reproduction and/or adaptation of any right of third parties.

Article 10 – Data privacy

All personal data about the candidates will remains anonymous to the jury(ies) until the end of the contest.

Participants agree that personal data, especially name and address, may be processed, shared, and otherwise used by Thea Pharmaceuticals for the purposes and within the context of the Passionate about Preservative Free mission

and any other purposes outlined herein. The data may also be used by Thea Pharmaceuticals in order to verify the participant's identity, postal address, and telephone number or to otherwise verify the participant's eligibility to participate in the contest.

Participants have the right to access, review, rectify, cancel or delete any personal data held by Thea Pharmaceuticals by writing to Thea Pharmaceuticals Ltd IC5, Keele University Science & Innovation Park, Keele, Staffordshire IC5 5NT.

Article 11 – Modification of the rules

Thea Pharmaceuticals reserves the right to amend the articles of these rules, without notice, mainly to reflect changes in legislation, judicial decisions, new regulatory rules, and recommendations made by organizations responsible for the administration of the Internet.

Every modification will be announced on the Thea UK website.

Article 12 – Miscellaneous

The present rules are construed under UK law.

Any and all disputes arising from the interpretation of these rules shall be settled amicably. In case of persistent disagreement on their application, and the absence of agreement, any dispute shall be exclusively settled by the competent courts of the UK.

In the event that any provision of these rules shall be found to be unlawful, void or, for any reason, unenforceable, such provision shall be deemed severed from, and shall in no way affect the validity or enforceability of the remaining provisions.

Download a copy of the terms and conditions