News & Media

A University of Pittsburgh collaboration demonstrates that partnership between pharmacists and audiologists can promote patient hearing health. In October 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed a rule to create a new category of over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids. This would allow some hearing aids to be sold directly to consumers without requiring a medical exam or a fitting by an audiologist.

It is my great pleasure to introduce this issue of Academic Pharmacy Now, my first as CEO of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. I have spent the past several months learning about AACP, meeting our leaders and members and getting to know our amazing staff.

Upholding interprofessional education and practice transformation, pharmacy foundations are bolstering pharmacists working to improve health outcomes. The communal need for pharmacists may be more evident than ever before, as the pandemic highlighted their role in strengthening public health.

Research by Midwestern University College of Pharmacy professors explored the pandemic’s effect on students’ emotional intelligence. Many questions linger about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and its lasting effects on students, the workforce, the economy, and the mental and physical repercussions that are still coming to light. When classes were forced to go virtual, students missed out on face-to-face connections with peers as well as professors and patients.

A DEIA Task Force is leading an AACP environmental scan to better understand the challenges, needs and opportunities facing deans as they pursue DEIA efforts. AACP’s strategic plan for 2021–2024 focuses on preparing pharmacists for changing environments. Part of this strategy aims to address diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism (DEIA) issues, starting with an environmental scan.

Palliative care requires an interdisciplinary approach, and pharmacists are partnering with other healthcare providers to offer team-based support and treatment for patients.

In part two of this look back at her career, Lucinda Maine reflects on the progress that’s been made in pharmacy and what lies ahead. As Lucinda Maine prepares to retire after 20 years as AACP’s executive vice president and CEO, she considers the challenges and opportunities on the horizon for the pharmacy profession.

The week I started writing this letter, Lee Vermeulen arrived at AACP’s headquarters to begin a time of overlap with me before he assumes the role of AACP Executive Vice President and CEO on July 1. This is a time of transformation and transitions, as Lee and I will discuss during the final plenary session at Pharmacy Education 2022, our first in-person annual meeting since 2019!

Lucinda Maine looks back on how she cultivated her passion for pharmacy and highlights from her 40-plus years in the profession. She tells the story of her career as if it happened through a series of serendipitous accidents, unexpected opportunities and surprises of support. As she tells it, doors opened for her and she simply walked through them.

An AACP Interim meeting panel explored how academic institutions can address workplace trauma. Many leaders and employees are seeing symptoms of workplace trauma in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. These include fatigue, absenteeism, disengagement, sleep difficulties, feelings of guilt or shame, avoidance of certain activities and feeling a loss of control.

As I muse over the nearly 50 years since I dedicated my professional energy to pharmacy, I am at once struck by the magnitude of the change that has occurred across those years and the pace. The magnitude is indisputably enormous, yet the pace has not been what I and many others have sought. Some examples: Shortly before I entered the Auburn pharmacy program as a pre-pharmacy freshman, Act 205 of the Alabama Pharmacy Practice statute said that a pharmacist was not to put the name of the product on the prescription label.

The 50 Stories from 50 States Challenge, an initiative from the ACT Pharmacy Collaborative, amplifies the vital patient care services that community pharmacies are providing nationwide. The COVID-19 pandemic magnified the value of pharmacists, especially those in community pharmacies who are highly accessible to the public.