Personalized medicine: It sounds like something you would read about in a novel or see in a movie. But recent scientific advances are leading to the identification of a growing number of genes implicated in diseases like cancer, heart disease, diabetes and obesity. In this issue of InterSections, we explore the role of pharmacists in [...]

In my position as ASHP president, I often hear from members about their thoughts on the current state of pharmacy practice. One of the things I’m hearing a lot lately is how tough the job market is for new graduates. I wanted to get a better handle on just what was going on out there, so ASHP fielded [...]

ASHP applauds President Obama for signing an executive order Oct. 31, 2011, taking action on the public health crisis of prescription drug shortages. The President’s order directs the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to broaden reporting of potential shortages, expedite regulatory reviews, and increases staffing resources for the FDA’s Drug Shortages Program. The President also expressed support for [...]

NATIONAL DRUG SHORTAGES have become an issue of critical importance both to patient care and to our ability as pharmacists to do our jobs well. InterSection’s cover story on this growing crisis focuses on the complex reasons behind shortages and what ASHP is doing to mitigate the problem. The numbers aren’t pretty. Two recent studies (one [...]

  AS I BEGIN MY YEAR as ASHP president, I’ve been struck by the depth and variety of issues that the Society has taken on. From drug shortages to pharmacy practice model improvement to specialty certification, ASHP continues to reach toward a better future for both patients and pharmacists. ASHP InterSections is a wonderful asset for members, as [...]

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, [...]

WHILE HEALTH-SYSTEM PHARMACISTS FACE a plethora of practice challenges every day, those challenges do not often make the national news. Yet the current struggle with drug shortages has started to do just that. Scores of articles have been published in major newspapers and websites about this crisis, most of them quoting ASHP, including in The Wall Street Journal, USA [...]

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 [...]

It is my profound privilege to speak to such an esteemed gathering of leaders of health-system pharmacy practice. We have a big job facing us in the months and years ahead: to conceptualize and reconfigure pharmacy practice from how it is currently constructed in hospitals and health systems, including its ambulatory component. This summit is [...]