AS PHARMACY PRACTICE EVOLVES from a profession that primarily supervises medication distribution to one that provides services such as medication therapy management and disease prevention, one of the main questions that remains unanswered is, “how long will this transformation take?” Although no one can predict how fast it will happen or what path it will take, [...]

OVER THE YEARS, ASHP’s National Survey of Health-System Pharmacy Practice has evolved into a powerful tool to track pharmacy developments. The results of the survey, which monitors both micro- and macrotrends, help highlight changes that can feel almost glacial in pace but that are critical to the profession’s future. “Although we publish the overarching results of the survey in the American Journal of Health- System Pharmacy (AJHP) [...]

AS I WRITE THIS, the world is witnessing amazing changes in the Middle East. Citizens from Tunisia to Egypt–and now in Libya–are rising up, demanding an end to totalitarian regimes that have long suppressed their human rights. What has struck me as I’ve watched the news reports is just how organic the changes have been, how they started with ordinary citizens, [...]

I WRITE THIS COLUMN having just returned from an incredibly energizing, exciting Pharmacy Practice Model Initiative (PPMI) Summit in Dallas. Pharmacy thought leaders from across the country came together to reach consensus on how we, as hospital and health-system pharmacists, should be practicing our profession in the future. Summit attendees looked at a number of [...]

More than 150 pharmacy leaders from across the country met in Dallas Nov. 7–9, 2010, to discuss what hospital and health-system pharmacy practice should look like in the future. Participants in the ASHP/ASHP Research and Education Foundation Pharmacy Practice Model Initiative Summit reached consensus on 41 characteristics that should be major features of optimal pharmacy [...]

THE STAFF AT WOMEN & CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL OF BUFFALO knows the value of speaking up. When it became evident that a new smart pump that Kaleida Health had introduced for use in its five-hospital system wouldn’t serve the needs of  Women & Children’s diverse population, the staff took its concerns to the administration. The result is an intravenous (IV) [...]