How do we help fully integrate pharmacists into the rapidly changing health care environment and prepare our faculty and students to understand and fulfill those roles?
With medication nonadherence rates still at 50 percent and higher, assisting patients in managing their medication regimens is a tremendous challenge. Helping student pharmacists understand their role in coaching patients to adhere is a resulting priority. In a strong demonstration of support for this priority, AACP partnered with the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) to create the Innovative Medication Adherence Educators Challenge. This initiative gave pharmacy faculty the opportunity to share their medication adherence education techniques and sparked thinking about future tools. The challenge submissions represented adherence tools currently in practice, in development or in the conceptual phase at 26 pharmacy schools. Three submissions were selected for presentation by the authors at the NCPA Medication Adherence Educators Symposium at the 2012 AACP Annual Meeting.
AACP and the American Pharmacists Association released Development and Implementation of Curricula Strategies in Medication Therapy Management by Colleges and Schools of Pharmacy. Created from a joint call for submissions, this publication highlights successful practices of pharmacy schools that are integrating medication therapy management into their curricula. The report provides submission summaries, key information for developing curricular strategies, and barriers to implementation.
AACP and our members played key roles in forming the Alliance for Integrated Medication Management. AIMM aims to improve care and clinical outcomes for patient care, ensuring that people with chronic conditions use medications in ways that are appropriate, effective, safe and convenient to manage. Through the AIMM network, health professionals associations, advocacy organizations and other groups are working together to drive a patient-centered and team-delivered framework for patient care. This model of care was created and has been disseminated by the Patient Safety and Clinical Pharmacy Services Collaborative (PSPC). The goal is to implement the model in 3,100 communities–every county in America.
Established in 2008 by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, PSPC provides a framework for healthcare organizations to identify, test and adopt strategies that improve health outcomes associated with medication use. PSPC currently has teams in more than 150 communities, and beginning in 2011, every Quality Improvement Organization under contract with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) must also implement projects using the PSPC framework. AIMM will work with HRSA and CMS to support the continued expansion of PSPC.
(sponsored by Teva Pharmaceuticals)
The following teams were recognized for outstanding student-led community engagement programs delivering consumer education about medication use.
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