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ASHP Assumes Leadership Role in GTMRx Institute to "Get the Medications Right"

By Paul Abramowitz posted 08-12-2019 17:42

  
Dear Colleagues,

ASHP recently announced that we have joined the Board of Directors of a very promising new organization called the GTMRx Institute. Launched in mid-April, the Institute seeks to enhance life by ensuring appropriate and personalized use of medication and gene therapies. The organization is bringing together critical stakeholders to advance the adoption of a systematic approach to medication use to save lives and reduce costs through comprehensive medication management (CMM). The GTMRx Institute recognizes that physicians, pharmacists, nurses and other healthcare providers need to work together convincing payers, providers, the public and others of the need for CMM. A recent study published in 2018 in the Annals of Pharmacotherapy estimated the cost of non-optimized medication use in the United States to be approximately 528 billion dollars per year.

The Institute includes many influential stakeholders in healthcare representing physicians, pharmacists, health systems, payers, governmental bodies, employers, drug and diagnostics companies, health IT innovators, consumer groups, and caregivers. The membership roster is impressive in both its scope and influence, from the American Academy of Family Physicians to the US Department of Veteran Affairs, with hundreds of organizations aligning under a shared belief that collaboration and integration across the spectrum of healthcare are the keys to improving outcomes and reducing costs.

The GTMRx Board of Directors, comprising nine members—including ASHP— is broad-based and includes individuals who are widely recognized as the conceptualizers of the patient-centered medical home.

The creation of the GTMRx Institute provides a unique opportunity for hospital and health-system pharmacists. ASHP’s members can support the important work of GTMRx by working with ASHP in collaboration with major stakeholders across healthcare to significantly improve the safety and quality of medication use in the United States by ensuring appropriate and personalized use of medication, as well as future modalities such as gene therapy and other new and emerging therapies.

ASHP has a long history of leading efforts to optimize medication use, improve patient safety and advance clinical pharmacy practice, and the work of the Institute perfectly aligns with ASHP’s vision that medication use will be optimal, safe, and effective for all people all of the time.

ASHP is a founding funder of the Institute, and our Board has made a significant initial three-year financial and time commitment to ensure the longevity and sustainability of its essential work. We firmly believe that by continuing to demonstrate the value of team-based, pharmacist-provided CMM that we can improve the lives of the patients we serve and decrease healthcare costs. We also know that hospital and health-system pharmacists are in the best position to lead the way as direct patient care providers on the interprofessional team.

Improving the safety and quality of medication use through CMM is an important and ongoing effort that demands focused time and attention by all stakeholders, but especially ASHP and our more than 50,000 members who are already demonstrating positive results every single day. I am looking forward to representing ASHP on the GTMRx Board of Directors as we work together to adopt personalized, patient-centered, systematic, and coordinated approaches to medication use that improve health outcomes and reduce healthcare costs.

Please view my GMTRx Voices of Change video to learn more about why this interprofessional patient care effort is so important. Please also encourage your hospital or health-system to join as well. There is no cost and the work is vital. To learn how to get involved and to become a member, visit the GTMRx website.

I will look forward to sharing more with you as the important work of GTMRx progresses. Thank you for all that you do on behalf of your patients and for being members of ASHP.

Sincerely,

Paul
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