Blogs

Professional Development Connect Blog Series: Why Joining Student Organizations is Vital for Pharmacy Students

By Deanna Laughlin posted 5 days ago
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Why Joining Student Organizations is Vital for Pharmacy Students Pharmacy school is a challenging and transformative experience, filled with countless opportunities to learn, grow, and prepare for a fulfilling career. Amidst the rigorous coursework and clinical rotations, one of the most enriching experiences for any pharmacy student is involvement in student organizations. As someone who has had the privilege of leading and participating in several student groups, I can confidently say that joining these organizations is more than just a resume booster—it’s an invaluable part of shaping your personal and professional identity. Why Student Organizations ...
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Reimagining acute care medication distribution

By Dennis Tribble posted 09-07-2024
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I need to state up front that these are my opinions which are a bit off the beaten path. You are welcome to disagree with me, as I know many will. This year contains the 50th anniversary of my graduation from pharmacy school, and my 50th year as a member of ASHP. During those 50 years, I have the opportunity to work within a completely floor-stock based medication delivery system (nursing was in charge of it all), individual in patient prescription systems (both with, and without a patient profile), the origins of unit-dose drug distribution (including cart exchange), the introduction of pharmacy-based IV admixtures, and the introduction and use of automated ...
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Double checking AI

By Dennis Tribble posted 09-01-2024
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I read an interesting piece in Beck e rs this morning (9/11/23) from the Wall Street Jou rnal about a health system that is teaching its employees to double-check AI and is even considering enforcing signoffs on activities. I will admit to a bit of ambivalence about that if only because in healthcare there is rarely someone whose job it is to do double-checks. In my experience, it is more common that someone stops rendering care to double-check another’s work, whether it be a human or AI. I worry about what happens when one adds an administrative burden ( e.g., signing off on a ...
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What is the Future of Telehealth and Pharmacy Practice?

By Addison Ragan posted 08-22-2024
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This is a question I have been pondering lately as more and more data suggests alarming future healthcare worker shortages. The US Department of Health and Human Services healthcare workforce projections published this year estimate there will be a 23% shortage of primary care providers and a 55% shortage of psychiatrist by 2036 1 . The projected provider gaps are worse in regions of the country deemed medical care “deserts”. Is this an opportunity for pharmacists to help fill these provider gaps using telehealth modalities? The pandemic served as a forcing mechanism requiring all healthcare providers including pharmacists to pivot from traditional face-to-face ...
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Redefining Influence: Beyond Social Media in Pharmacy Practice

By Sierra Richard posted 08-19-2024
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Written by Alissa Clayton, PharmD, Sierra Richard, PharmD, BCPPS, and Hope Rockett, PharmD, MS The concept of "influencing" in the modern era often conjures images of social media stars and digital trendsetters. However, in pharmacy, influencing extends far beyond Instagram and X (formally known as Twitter). This paper aims to reimagine and challenge the traditional notions of influence within the world of pharmacy, highlighting the multifaceted ways professionals in this field can impact their community, health systems, and healthcare at large. Through redefining pharmacy's influences, we highlight the essential role of pharmacists in driving healthcare ...
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Recent article on AI

By Dennis Tribble posted 08-04-2024
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Just got my most recent paper edition of AJHP (July 15, 2024) and read Steven Smoke's commentary entitled Artificial intelligence in pharmacy: a guide for clinicians . In this article he articulates five principles that seem quite appropriate. His fifth principle, Pharmacists must use AI responsibly is one that I think deserves special attention. I respect that responsible use of AI must include appropriate use and citation if generative AI is used to prepare any kind of publication. I was disappointed that the discussion of responsible use stopped there. As noted in a previous blog , our historical use of automation (in my experience) indicates that we ...
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Automation gone wrong: Misalignment of tools and outcomes

By Dennis Tribble posted 08-01-2024
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I just opened a daily blast from Beckers and happened across an article in which John Halamka, MD of Mayo Clinic reports “going from paper charts to fully digital ended up losing the hearts and minds of clinicians and nurses.” He goes on to describe that physicians were handed an automated record that requires them to type data into 140 data fields for every patient visit (which apparently average about 11 minutes). How does the physician actually see the patient with any empathy at all and still manually enter data into 140 fields? I have tended to experience this from “the other side” of the discussion (as a patient) in which it felt like my physician ...
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the undervalued department

By Dennis Tribble posted 07-29-2024
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My morning cruise through Becker's this morning (7/29/2024) yielded an article from last Tuesday entitled An untapped opportunity within health systems . Not surprisingly, it talked about Pharmacy with discussions from Patrick Falvey (COO Baptist Louisville, KY) and Michael Evans (CPO Geisinger). A little interesting history in the article. What caught my attention was that I thought we were past this. In this same publication I have seen lists of Chief Pharmacy Executives and other discussions that seemed to indicate that we had arrived; that our value was recognized and understood. This article made it seem like there is still a long way to go. Before ...
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Clinical pharmacists in high demand

By Dennis Tribble posted 07-14-2024
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In reading through Becker's this morning, I happened upon an article entitled Healthcare's most in-demand, fastest-growing jobs . This article has two lists of 10 job titles each: Healthcare's most in-demand jobs Healthcare's jobs with the fastest growing demand Not surprisingly, many of the jobs on the first list (7 out of 10) are nursing jobs. Interestingly, the role "Clinical Pharmacist" was listed as one of the ten jobs with the fastest growing demand. The article gives no indication whether the list is ordered by any criteria, so it is hard to say whether the position of that role (9 out of 10) indicates its speed of growth compared to ...
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Should payors determine what is on a formulary?

By Dennis Tribble posted 07-01-2024
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I just read in a newly released edition of Pharmacy Practice News where many practitioners believe that formulary content for high-cost drugs may be determined by payors. The notion in this article seemed to be that something should not be on the formulary if some payors will not pay for it or may require an extensive pre-approval process. This seems to me to conflate to essentially unrelated issues: Whether the drug is deemed useful and appropriate for use in the health-system Whether the drug will be fully or partially reimbursed for particular patients While cost-effectiveness is always part of the formulary decision, it seems to have been given ...
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Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) 201 (Part 2): Pharmacy Advanced Overview FAQ

By Stacy Carson posted 06-26-2024
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Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) 201 (Part 2): Pharmacy Advanced Overview FAQ Authors: Sang Kit (Stephen) Wat, PharmD, MPH, MS, BCPS; Zachary Hagen, PharmD, MHA, BCSCP, 340B ACE SAG: Operations and Automation; Workgroup: DSCSA 1. Who does the DSCSA authorized trading partner requirement apply to? a. Manufacturers, repackagers, wholesale distributors, third-party logistics providers, dispensing pharmacies 2. What are the requirements of becoming an authorized trading partner? a. Licensure – Trading partners must either be appropriately licensed or hold a valid ...
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Quiet Ambition

By Dennis Tribble posted 05-31-2024
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I read an interesting article in Beckers today about what some are calling ‘quiet ambition’ entitled “Quiet ambition could spell trouble for succession plans”. To quote the article, quiet ambition “is the idea that workplace achievements should not be chased just for the sake of them, and the acknowledgement that a company's bottom line might not align with one's personal definition of success.” This is not to say that they reject the responsibility to be productive. Rather, it is an indication that an individual may have personal goals with which “climbing the ladder” would interfere. Some of the statistics were interesting. In a survey of 1,000 U.S. employees ...
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ASHP APPE Elective Rotation, is it worth it?

By Khaznah Alshammari posted 05-05-2024
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Who am I: Greetings, Allow me to introduce myself. I am Khaznah Alshammari, an international student from Saudi Arabia. I am pursuing a Doctor of Pharmacy degree at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. My academic journey began with graduating from a Doctor of Pharmacy program in Saudi Arabia and becoming a Teaching Assistant at the University of Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. Fortunately, I secured a scholarship through employment, enabling me to further my education in the United States. I will start my PGY1 pharmacy residency journey this year at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA. I am engaged with ASHP through the ASHP Pharmacy ...
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What digital transformation is NOT

By Dennis Tribble posted 04-30-2024
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I got an email from Atlassian today that contained a link to a white paper on digital transformation entitled “ Unblurring the lines of a digital transformation: Knowing what something is not is as important as knowing what it is ”. It’s a bit of an infomercial, but it made three points, the first of which really hit home with me, because I have run into it so often. “Bringing in new technology to simplify and speed up work, or just moving to the cloud is not a digital transformation. Ask yourself, what are you transforming? You might be optimizing your current practice, but your methodologies have not changed.” Far too many times, I have seen technology ...
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Students’ Perspective on the Role of Clinical Pharmacists in Pharmacogenomics

By Ching Nung Lin posted 04-26-2024
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Ching Nung “Selina” Lin, Candidate for Doctor of Pharmacy '25, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences - Boston Nancy Yousry, Candidate for Doctor of Pharmacy ‘24, St. John’s University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences Chinemerem Opara, Candidate for Doctor of Pharmacy ‘24, The University of North Texas Health Science Center College of Pharmacy Tiffany Dinh, Candidate for Doctor of Pharmacy ‘24, The University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy Ching Nung “Selina” Lin, Nancy Yousry, and Chinemerem Opara are committee members with the ASHP Pharmacy Student Forum’s (PSF) Advancement of Professional Practice Advisory Group (APPAG). Tiffany ...
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I'm a Poly-Pharmacy Patient and I Hate It

By Ashley Duty posted 04-18-2024
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I was reflecting yesterday that somehow, in the past year, I became a poly-pharmacy patient. How did this happen? A broken system. It's not a secret that I have allergies, asthma, and eczema. The classic triad has tested my patience more and more over the past several years and, unfortunately, the traditional treatment options have failed. That has led to using newer, novel therapies which are typically considered "specialty" or "third/fourth tier" from insurance. One is even a topical compound. What does this look like? - Topical item #1 from Pharmacy A - Topical item #2 from Pharmacy B - Topical compound from Pharmacy C - Nasal spray from Pharmacy ...
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Interesting data about nursing school enrollment

By Dennis Tribble posted 04-17-2024
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Even in retirement I have been able to preserve subscription to Becker's and saw an article today describing statistics around enrollment in nursing schools post pandemic. The short story is that, while enrollment in entry-level Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) has increased slightly from 2022 to 2023, enrollment in RN-to-BSN programs has declined by 10%, and enrollment in advanced degree programs has also declined. The other academic program that saw an slight increase was for Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree, which is intended to prepare post-masters nurses for leadership and advanced clinical roles (I admit that I had to look this one up). ...
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Description of a Medical Writing Rotation: Is it right for your PGY1 or PGY2 program?

By Carly Warner posted 04-16-2024
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While examples of clinical rotations abound, it is important to evaluate how non-clinical rotations like medical writing enrich a residency program. In a 2014 article, Brown and colleagues provide valuable insights and practical tips on the implementation of a medical writing rotation. 1 This article coupled with prior firsthand experience completing Dr. Brown’s rotation provided the inspiration for piloting a medical writing rotation at our institution. We hope this post will inspire others to consider a medical writing rotation within their pharmacy residency programs! A medical writing rotation during a post-graduate pharmacy residency program introduces ...
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Be careful what you wish for - you might get it!

By Dennis Tribble posted 03-31-2024
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I read an interesting article in Beckers this morning about a Harvard Business Review questionnaire in which 43% of the respondents (characterized as 757 members of the Harvard Business Review audience who work in healthcare) said that “disconnected or incompatible systems” are the biggest hurdles to becoming more data driven. While this is inarguably true, at least in our pharmacy world, that statement implies that resolving the connectivity problems would just fix things. My experience has been that this is not true; that there is still a lot of data cleanup and governance work ahead once the “data pipeline” has been opened. A number of these disconnected ...
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Recognizing Medical Affairs as pharmacy practice

By Dennis Tribble posted 03-29-2024
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I had a chance to view an article by Bastow and Greszler in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education about the value of including exposure to Industrial Medical Affairs in pharmacy education and residencies. It is gratifying to see discussion of industrial practice as something other than "going to the dark side". I am grateful both to Samantha and Craig for their excellent article, and to the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education for publishing it. It is important to understand that Medical Affairs practice exists because regulatory bodies need a group of professionals and scientists within the pharmaceutical and medical device industries ...
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