APhA2011
Sara McElroy, 2011-2012 APhA-ASP National
President
Delivered March 28, 2011 at APhA2011 in Seattle, WA
Madam Speaker, Members of the APhA-ASP House of
Delegates, Distinguished Guests and Members of APhA-ASP; it is a
privilege and an honor to stand before you this morning as your National
President. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the
immediate-past APhA-ASP National Executive Committee, APhA Staff, the
students, staff and faculty of the University of Washington School of
Pharmacy and my family for their unwavering support.
Although my time as a national officer has been short, I
have been truly inspired by the many ways in which members and chapters
contribute to the academy and passionately shape the profession of
pharmacy. To name just a few of our accomplishments, this year has
seen the implementation of two new patient care projects Generation Rx
and Operation Heart, in addition to a renewed focus for Project CHANCE,
a doubling of submissions for PharmFlix, and, as you could see at our
Opening General Session, an incredible impact and participation in
patient care projects. Each one of you made these achievements
possible.
When Steven Zona launched the presidential theme a year
ago- “One Team: Working together to shape the future of health
care,” I was inspired by his vision of pharmacists contributing to
a patient-centered, team-based approach to health care. Last year,
“One Team” reached into all areas of the academy, from
policy efforts to patient care projects. This year, we will
strengthen our commitment to the pharmacists role in patient centered
care as we continue the presidential theme of One Team. Our
patients deserve nothing less. We will expand our efforts to
develop sustainable projects that allow us to learn about, with, and
from our partners in health care. This past year has provided
clear evidence that pharmacists can be an integral part
of a patient-centered team. Our challenge now is
to make these initiatives permanent fixtures in the healthcare
landscape.
What I envision for our profession is that we will
practice the way we dream of practicing. Let’s imagine our
pharmacy “Nirvana.” Seattle references aside, picture
the perfect pharmacy practice of tomorrow if there were no
boundaries.
Does it include MTM services with compensation?
Do you work shoulder to shoulder with other medical professionals for
the sole purpose of placing the patient at the center of care?
Does it include regular administration of immunizations, preventative
screening, and monitoring?
Would your patients not only KNOW their medicines, but also KNOW the
value of their pharmacist’s work?
To reach our nirvana, we shouldn’t just imagine
what we want; we must take an active role in its establishment. Thoreau
said "If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be
lost...Now put the foundations under them." Now is a time of
unprecedented opportunity. As partisans on both sides have debated the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Americans have become
engaged in understanding our healthcare system and considering how it
could be improved. In the next year, we have a unique window of
opportunity to lay the foundation of our ideal pharmacy practice.
As an Academy with a long history of advocacy and advancement, we must
step up to this challenge with energy and excitement. We have a
responsibility to ourselves, our profession and our patients to take
this opportunity and shape the future role of pharmacists in
healthcare. We have shown that we CAN impact a patient’s
healthcare, now we need to make it so compelling that it is demanded by
everyone.
I now challenge each one of you to move pharmacy forward
by establishing just one new interprofessional standard of care at your
practice. Team up with a physician to help monitor one
patient’s health outcomes. Work with your college or
university to add one interprofessional course or study group to your
curriculum. Ask one patient per day to write their legislator
about the benefit of the services you provide. If each of us in
this academy acts upon this challenge, we will reach a tipping point.
These small steps will accumulate to create an environment for
patients, insurers, and prescribers in which these practices will be the
norm rather than the exception.
A year from now, in New Orleans, I want us all to be
able to look back with pride at the new standards of care we
established. When we see each other again, each one of us will have a
story to tell. Imagine, 31,000 steps closer to reaching our
vision. A vision of one team, centered around patient care is
within our reach, and we, as student pharmacists, have the passion,
determination, and will to make it a reality.
Thank you.
APhA2010
Steven D. Zona, 2010-2011 APhA-ASP National President
Delivered March 15, 2010 at APhA2010 in Washington, DC
Madam Speaker, Members of the APhA-ASP House of
Delegates, Distinguished Guests and Members of APhA-ASP; it is a
privilege and an honor to stand before you this morning as your National
President. One of the greatest opportunities of my professional
career, has been to serve you this past year and be witness to your
collective effort to advance the future of our profession.
Almost a year ago in San Antonio, we pledged to put
aside our intra-professional differences and unite behind one common
goal: realizing the vision that pharmacy would ensure optimal medication
therapy outcomes for the patients we serve.
From this pledge, one voice, over 30,000 strong, began
not just to advocate, but create real change within our profession. By
capitalizing on media outlets such as You Tube and Facebook, we spread
the word to legislators that pharmacy is more than ready to meet the
challenge of creating a better health care system for Americans; we
shared with the public that our profession has so much more to offer;
and we demonstrated to current practitioners that the future of our
profession is bright and their legacy is in good hands.
Recognizing that patient care is the cornerstone of our
profession, we established a fourth national patient care project to
combat the growing epidemic of cardiovascular disease, the
number one killer of Americans. None of these accomplishments would
have been possible without each and every one of you and your dedication
to our profession.
I also owe my deepest gratitude to the people who have
helped mentor me throughout this past year including the immediate-past
APhA-ASP National Executive Committee, APhA Staff, and to everyone at
the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy. I would also like to
thank my parents for all their support and welcome them to their first
APhA-ASP meeting and interaction with our profession.
Though our accomplishments during the course of the past
year were great, we must continue to look to the future to achieve the
vision created by the Joint Commission of Pharmacy Practitioners (JCPP)
that stated by 2015 “pharmacists will be the health care
professionals responsible for providing patient care that ensures
optimal medication therapy outcomes.”
Through the hard work and dedication of current and past
pharmacy practitioners, our profession has been witness to a
transformation that brought our knowledge and skills from “behind
the counter” to touch the lives of the patients we serve. We as a
profession are confident in our abilities, and must continue the effort
to share our vision with the public and fellow healthcare providers. We
must make it our mission to build bonds with other health professionals
as well as our patients so that they will see the value of a pharmacist
in providing direct patient care.
With the increasing number of specialists and
professionals involved in the care of patients today, the importance of
communication and coordination between members of the health care team
is a key factor in positive patient outcomes. I didn’t realize how
important the interactions and relationships between health care
professionals were until my grandmother was hospitalized for a quadruple
bypass surgery and aortic valve replacement.
The number of individuals involved in her care were
staggering: an anesthesiologist, cardiothoracic surgeon, operating room
nurse, recovery room nurse and a pharmacist. Looking at her medical
needs today, she regularly visits both her cardiologist and primary care
physician for routine check-ups, consults her pulmonologist as needed
and utilizes pharmacy services to manage her medication therapy.
Each practitioner provided their unique abilities and
expertise to make someone’s life… my grandmother’s
life… a little bit better. Throughout her experience there were
many opportunities for these individuals to work together to provide the
best possible care, but there were also many opportunities for this
collaborative effort to fail. Her story was just one among many patients
whose lives are impacted every day by our country’s
“team” approach to health care.
It is from examples like this that we look to our future
and this year’s theme is built: “One Team:
Working together to shape the future of health
care”
Collaboration is more than just forming a team of
practitioners, but rather creating an active and ongoing partnership of
healthcare and non-healthcare professionals who are committed to the
best possible care for patients.
No matter what area of pharmacy you choose to practice;
you will be directly touched by the need to effectively collaborate with
other health care professionals to provide the optimal outcomes for your
patients. Our vision is clear, but there are still many gaps in the
current health care system where collaboration does not exist.
How can we expect to be collaborative practitioners if
we lack an understanding of each others role in patient care? How can we
have shared goals in working with our patients if we do not communicate
outside of our individual professions? If we want to be effective health
care providers we must foster these relationships so that everyone
can understand the bigger picture and the care of our patients can be
optimized.
Together…
We can increase communication with other health professionals. Building
interprofessional bonds should not start when we become licensed
practitioners but rather during our clinical training and within our
patient care projects. In this way, we can begin to build a health care
environment that puts the patient first and does not sacrifice care
based on traditional provider roles.
Together…
We can create a shared goal for the care of our patients. On Saturday,
we took the Oath of a Pharmacist, and we vowed to consider the welfare
of humanity and relief of suffering as our primary concerns. All health
care professionals take similar oaths and share the values of serving
those in need and optimizing health for all people. By working together,
we can find synergies with immunizing our communities, working to screen
and treat patients with chronic diseases, and continuing to advocate for
positive change in the provision of health care services in our
country.
And together…
We can learn to value and respect the expertise each profession brings
to the care of patients. By increasing interaction now as student
pharmacists, we can build trusting relationships with other health care
professionals and demonstrate the importance of our clinical skills in
providing holistic patient care.
The groundwork has already been laid toward making this
vision a reality. In January a meeting took place at APhA Headquarters
in which the national leaders of the American Medical Association
Medical Student Section, the American Medical Student Association, the
National Student Nursing Association, and APhA-ASP met to outline common
goals, and develop steps to increase interaction in our professional
development, professional advocacy efforts, and within our patient care
projects. The truly inspiring part of this meeting was that it provided
each party involved a unique glimpse into the world of another health
care profession and created a shared desire to foster stronger
relationships between our associations and our
professions.
Throughout this upcoming year, we must make it our
mission to branch outside of our comfort zone and build better
connections with our colleagues so that we can take advantage of the
clinical opportunities that the trailblazers of our profession fought to
create! How will we know if we are successful? Physicians will expect
our input, nurses will welcome our presence, and patients will demand
our services.
With a rich past and an accomplished present, we must
look beyond our profession to unite with other health care providers.
The future of healthcare is right in front of us, and we must form One
Team with our colleagues to become the next generation of health
professionals practicing not from separate disciplines, but working
together, as one, to shape the future of health care.
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APhA2009
Adriane N. Irwin
2009-2010 APhA-ASP National President
Delivered April 6, 2009 at APhA2009 in San Antonio, Texas
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APhA2008
What comes to your mind when you hear the voice of a man
sharing his dream for equality? Or what about another, whose humble and
quiet resolve gave voice to an entire nation? From Martin Luther
King to Gandhi, from Churchill to Mother Teresa – every
significant moment in our history has been the result of someone who
made an unwavering commitment to a dream – to no longer be content
with the way things are, but instead hope for the way things
could be.
As members of this profession, we dedicate ourselves to the same
precept – not simply for the sake of progress, but because we have
been entrusted with the hopes of the patients we serve. In the
Oath of our profession, we commit both to the service of our
patients and to reflecting on ourselves and our profession, so that we
can transform pharmacy and make tomorrow’s practice
better than today’s.
The current landscape of our profession has been shaped by years of
transformation. It was not long ago that we saw the graduation of
the last Bachelor of Pharmacy, marking a complete transition to the
entry-level PharmD; rotations – what we might consider an integral
part of the pharmacy curriculum – continue to be defined even
today; and, with the passage of Medicare Part D, we saw the single most
significant change in our professional lifetimes, one that has opened
the door for medication therapy management and an entirely new era of
transformation in pharmacy.
To provide direction during this time of change, a number of
professional organizations have stepped forward to share their vision
for the future of pharmacy. Among their hopes for practice are
that by 2015, pharmacists will be the healthcare professionals
responsible for medication therapy outcomes and that we
will have both the authority and the autonomy to do it. It is a
vision that resonates across practice settings – from
health-systems to academia, from the clinic to the community –
pharmacists stand united behind a vision for pharmacy practice.
So the question then becomes: as student pharmacists, how do we
embrace this shared vision for the future of pharmacy and
become that transformation we want to see in our
profession?
Although we could respond in any number of ways, each comes back to a
simple idea:
It starts with one.
It starts with one step… one step toward discovering the
opportunities that await you as an active member of your
profession. For the last 39 years, our Academy has provided its
members with the resources and the experiences necessary to advance our
profession.
This past year we saw the launch of the Leadership Training Series, a
program that provides any student pharmacist with an opportunity to
develop their skills as a leader.
Over this past year, our President Brandon Patterson introduced us to
another challenge in our practice: 1 out of every 4 Americans has
basic or below basic health literacy. But with every challenge
comes an opportunity. From surveys to determine the level of
health literacy among patients in their communities to education
specifically tailored for patients who lack these skills, chapters
across the country have embraced health literacy and turned information
into action.
It starts with one.
It starts with one touch… one touch that represents a
pharmacist and a patient who are no longer divided by a counter but who
instead work together for a common purpose; one touch that says we will
no longer be defined by a product, but will instead be recognized by our
service to others.
Over the last 11 years, student pharmacists have provided over
three-quarters of a million immunizations. 48 states now recognize
the impact that our profession can have on public health. However,
each year nearly 90,000 Americans will die of a vaccine-preventable
disease. The number of vaccines that student pharmacists provided
last year? 90,000. Imagine the impact of one more immunization, one more
life saved.
As part of our efforts to respond to a growing epidemic, student
pharmacists screened more than 20,000 patients for diabetes. But
we still have much left to do. Since the time I began speaking, 30
Americans were diagnosed with diabetes – by the end of the day,
another 4000. The numbers might seem overwhelming, but they
present us with one more opportunity.
It starts with one.
It starts with one voice… one voice advocating on behalf of our
profession, ensuring that our efforts are not lost among us; that our
lawmakers value our contributions to health; and that the public not
only recognize the services we provide, but that they come to expect
it.
Our House of Delegates represents the collective voice of student
pharmacists; we continue to use that voice to advocate quality in
pharmacy education, ensuring that each generation is prepared to face
the challenges of an ever-changing profession.
Yet when we arrive here, it may seem easy to lose sight of where it
all began. What makes this forum so unique is that each resolution
we debate here – from one that ensures access to poison
information when patients need it most, to another that calls us to
reach out to the underserved in other countries – each resolution
started with one student pharmacist who saw a need.
It starts with one.
It starts with one moment… one moment where we can watch as
that voice comes to life; one moment where we realize not only the
influence we have on our patients and our profession, but how those
experiences define us; one moment where we have the opportunity
to inspire, just as we were once inspired by those that came before
us.
The influence of figures like Martin Luther King and Gandhi –
they remain with us because their dream did not die when the speeches
were over and the crowds went home. The dream lived on because out
of a moment came a commitment.
This is our moment… and the commitment our profession
calls for is that each of us becomes an agent of change – to not
only have a vision for the future of this profession, but to do
what’s necessary to transform that vision into reality; because
the question is not whether our profession is going to change, but
whether we will step forward to define that change.
We must begin by challenging the idea that true and meaningful change
can be a mandate; that simply the creation of a new program or a new
resource can be the transformation we want to see in our
profession. The strength of our Academy lies not in a patient care
project, or a resolution, or even a theme for the year – our
strength lies in each of you. It is your dedication that
brings meaning to that voice, that touch, or that moment.
Being an agent of change means leading not by a title, but by an
example; it means demonstrating an influence that cannot be elected or
appointed, but one that is entrusted. It means using that
influence to bring out the best in ourselves and in those around us.
For chapter leaders, it means providing your members with a sense of
meaning and value; that being a member of this Academy means being a
part of something; it means empowering your members with the skills
and experiences necessary to advance our profession.
For each of us, it means discovering opportunities to grow, and using
those experiences to influence change on our campuses and in our
communities; it means taking time for self-reflection – because in
order to understand the values of our patients, we must first understand
our values.
The achievements of our Academy are the collective effort of 30,000
– each one of us giving back to this profession in our own unique
way. From the student pharmacist with a family and a part-time
job, who gives one hour at the health fair on Saturday, to the chapter
President who spent weeks planning that same health fair – no
matter how much time we have to give back to our profession, we can
shape its future as agents of change.
It only starts with one.
The vision for pharmacy practice is not simply a hope for the future
– it’s also our challenge… and the last several days
have reaffirmed my belief that no one is more capable of rising to meet
this challenge than us – together, we can be that
transformation.
So to each of us, the question I pose this morning is this:
do we accept that challenge?
Will
we commit to defining the future of our profession?
Will
we say, “Our moment for transformation in pharmacy is
now”?
Do we accept that challenge?
I think I can speak for the Academy when I say:
We accept.
Brent N. Reed
2008-2009 APhA-ASP National President
Delivered March 17, 2008 at APhA2008 in San Diego, California
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APhA2007
Madam Speaker, Members of the APhA-ASP House of Delegates,
Distinguished Guests and Members of APhA-ASP; it is a privilege and an
honor to stand before you this morning as your National President.
I am committed to the will of this Academy in helping all student
pharmacists in their pursuits of professional growth, collective
advocacy, and defining and promoting the future of pharmacy. This
past year, great leadership has helped us grow and advance the
profession further than ever before. Members of the past
year’s National Executive Committee have taught me lessons in
learning, leading, and the teamwork necessary for me to help the newly
elected officers perform their duties for this Academy. I have written
each past officer a letter and provided it to them before this speech to
offer my thanks and best wishes. Let us all join in applause to do
the same.
Our recent successes are now moments of the past, and while it good to
pause and celebrate those achievements, our duty today is to go forward
with new purpose and resolve in carrying the profession to new heights
and onward to even greater feats. Today we live in a culture that
is inundated with information. In fact, this era has come to be
known as the Information Age. With creations such as the
Blackberry©, the iPod©, and especially MySpace™, it is
easy to learn of new ideas and events happening anywhere throughout the
world in only a matter of seconds. Whether it is a child in a home
watching television before school or a savvy entrepreneur checking the
stocks for subtle changes in the market, or everything in between and
beyond, we all are inundated with a multitude of images, sounds, and
text. Now let’s take this thought even further and imagine
someone who does not possess the skills necessary to understand the
information they are encountering. In fact, we don’t have to
imagine it, let us just think about the world we live in. A report
released in September 2006 stated that 75 million adults had
Basic or Below Basic health literacy skills.
This means that they would have trouble looking at an OTC product and
using that information to prevent potential drug and food interactions.
With over 11 billion dollars in OTC sales each year and this being only
one component of the healthcare sector, the potential effects of low
health literacy are staggering. Another finding from the studies
in literacy shows that some of the lowest scores are from the population
aged 65 or older, a growing concern indeed. It is because of this
great problem I have proposed our focus for next year as
Embracing Health Literacy: Turning Information into
Action. We must join together to confront this
significant health problem facing America.
However, having a basic understanding of the complexities contributing
to a health literacy problem in America is not enough. Overcoming
complicated issues of society do not occur without understanding the
simplicity within ourselves. That simplicity is defined as a
purpose. For APhA-ASP that purpose is a mission; for us as
individuals, that purpose is a collection of our values and
aspirations. Everyone in this room has been asked at least once
that familiar question: “Why pharmacy?” I’m sure
we all provided an answer to the interviewer or close relative who
asked. And, while that answer may have been true for that time and
place, our environment and much more significantly we, as student
pharmacists, have changed. Our knowledge of pharmacy has
increased: long days in Pharmacotherapy lectures and long nights in the
library have taught us much of the modern medicines we can use to
improve our patients lives. But, I know for a fact that our experiences
in providing patient care have grown as well. More student pharmacists
than ever before can say that they participated in and learned from the
patient care projects of APhA-ASP. In the Heartburn Awareness
Challenge alone, our most recently added patient care project the
number of student pharmacist participants has more than doubled over the
previous year.
I am asking us to go further this next year--For us to go further in
understanding why we chose pharmacy, to understand the issues
surrounding health literacy problems in the United States; and for us to
use this foundational knowledge of ourselves and our society to take the
necessary action to advance patient care. To reach these goals, we will
focus on two actions: empowering patients and advocating for change.
Helping patients to help themselves cannot occur without first
understanding our patients. Our country faces a dilemma. And,
while many have focused on the great economic divide, little attention
has been given to the intellectual divide that may be even more
detrimental to our country. It is hard for us in this room to
imagine what a person faces in a world where so much is presented yet so
little is understood. The sequencing of the human genome, the
instabilities of the Middle East, and the images and sounds of global
commerce pushing forward mean little to a person who has difficulty
interpreting a medicine bottle that simply reads “Take two tablets
by mouth twice each day.” A common reality is a parent
giving an oral suspensions in a child’s ear for Otitis Media
because they know that is where the infection is but never understand
medications taken by mouth get there too. When you discuss Heartburn
with your patients and hand them materials to enhance their
understanding, what will they take from your encounter? Do we
honestly believe that patients who cannot comprehend a sentence written
at a 6th grade reading level will change their eating habits to get to a
green level when they don’t understand that eating green foods
means they will have less risk of developing heartburn symptoms.
Additionally, patients with low literacy in general, and low health
literacy in particular, are likely to feel stigmatized by society.
Even during routine interactions with pharmacists, student pharmacists,
and other health care professionals, these patients may feel inadequate
and vulnerable. This is our challenge: finding ways to
embrace our patients and treat them effectively while helping them to
treat themselves and progress to better health. Our patients need our
help in ensuring they can act upon the health information we, or other
health care providers present. No other profession has our level
of access and trust.
But helping our patients through direct patient-provider interactions
alone is not enough. Healthy People 2010 set many lofty
goals for improving the health of this nation, including improving
health literacy. We must now advocate our government to stay true
to its obligations in this task. We must push this country to
recognize the significance of the health literacy disparity and seek
corporate and regulatory support, through both financial means and
government action to help change the culture of the information age in
which we live. We must stress the significance of a lack in
current health literacy research. New research will enable us to
screen patients for literacy faster, more accurately, and with fewer
stigmas than current procedures. We must also stress the lack of
understanding of the health literacy dilemma by the general population
and especially other health care providers. More opportunities for
education will increase tolerance and help unify this country in its
ability to eliminate this health crisis.
Is this too much to ask? Has health literacy become a problem too large
for us to make an impact? I, more strongly now than ever before,
say ‘Absolutely not’. This past year I have witnessed
the actions of student pharmacists reaching out to the media in an
effort that had never before been made. From appearances on all
major news networks and billboards high up in the sky to
newspapers and radio that push the very boundaries of the states in
which we live, we made a difference in communicating the value of the
profession to an audience previously uninformed. It is you and I,
the members of this Association and its Academy of Student Pharmacists,
through immense activity who can truly change the way our patients
receive care. This modern era is yearning for a health care
practitioner who will help lead patients to better assimilate,
understand, and act upon the information that they receive. Let us lead
this Association in saying ‘We are those
professionals’. Fellow Student Pharmacists, this year we
will lead the way in moving pharmacy to a practice model that focuses on
the patient and their understanding to help them in ways once only
imagined by members of our profession who came before us. Let us bring
our creativity and energy to help all patients in their quest for good
health. Throughout this year, let us always bear in mind the
commitment to Embracing Health Literacy: Turning Information into
Action we made here, today.
Brandon J. Patterson
2007-2008 APhA-ASP National President
Delivered March 19, 2007 at APhA2007 in Atlanta, Georgia
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