Groundbreaking Two-Day Summit to Accelerate Transformation in Pharmacy Education and Practice

AACP Article

For Immediate Release

Contact: Maureen Thielemans, 703-408-6140

Arlington Va.—More than 300 emerging and established leaders in pharmacy will convene June 2-3 at the Bridging Pharmacy Education and Practice Summit being held at six regional host sites across the U.S. to achieve consensus and provide action-oriented recommendations that will help move the pharmacy profession forward.

Two key questions will guide participants’ discussion at the Summit: what does pharmacy workforce optimization look like, and to get to an optimized pharmacy workforce, what is needed and what changes are required in the following areas?

Participants will engage in strategic analysis and planning around four topics: Competency-based Pharmacy Education; Professional Identity Formation; Optimizing the Continuum of Learning: Pharm.D. through Post-graduate Education; and Pharmacists’ Continuing Professional Development and Life-long Learning. Each of these topics will be a segment of the Summit, involving a keynote presentation, a reactor panel, and a breakout session. 

The Summit is the first major initiative of the Center to Accelerate Pharmacy Practice Transformation and Academic Innovation, which was formed in November 2021. Six national organizations served as planning partners over the last several months, including the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy, the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, the American Pharmacists Association, the American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists and the Board of Pharmacy Specialties.

“The establishment of the AACP Transformation Center represents a major commitment by AACP to work collaboratively with partners and stakeholders to accelerate pharmacy practice transformation and catalyze academic innovation,” said Melissa Murer Corrigan, BSPharm, CAE, FAPhA, FASHP, AACP Transformation Center Executive Director. “The time is now to address medication use optimization, improving health outcomes, and optimizing the pharmacy workforce. This groundbreaking two-day event includes a strong focus on ‘what’s next’ and building on the presentations, analysis, and insights from our six planning partners and BPEP Summit participants.”

The six campus host sites include: University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Lipscomb University, Nashville, Tenn.; Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, Fla.; The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas; Big 10 Conference Center, Chicago, Ill.; and University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Attendees will draft consensus and recommendation statements for what work should come after the Summit, as well as participate in post-Summit proceedings and activities. At AACP’s Annual Meeting in July, the school poster theme is “Bridging Education and Practice,” allowing schools to feature their work around innovation and transformation while helping the center identify potential collaborative efforts moving forward.