Dear Colleagues - January 2020

Happy New Year! I have high hopes for the new year as we work together to transform pharmacy practice and education to ensure that the public receives exactly the right “dose” of pharmacy services, including preventive and public health services.

In mid-January, the five AACP standing committees and the Argus Commission met in the Washington metro area for their face-to-face work time. As a reminder, President Sorensen challenged all of us to embrace his “bold aim” for transforming our work. Reaching half the primary care medical practices over the next five years to help them integrate or expand the medication management services our faculty and our graduates can offer is the aim.

At the meeting, Todd reminded attendees of the diffusion of innovation curve, noting that “a tipping point” for innovation occurs when the early adopters have implemented the innovation. Based on his assessment of pharmacists’ practicing in partnership with primary care teams, he thinks we may be at approximately 20 percent of those practices today. Twenty percent is the tipping point! So now our collective efforts, combined with those of other state and national pharmacy associations, can focus on how to help the Early Majority welcome pharmacists into their team. Efforts like the ACT/CPESN Collaborative that now has engaged almost 80 colleges and schools of pharmacy are an important part of this work. Better care for individuals, healthier populations, lower cost AND increased clinician well-being will be the evidence-based results.

This will also be a special year for a unique reason: Miss America 2020 is none other than Camille Schrier, a Virginia Commonwealth University Pharm.D. student! In keeping with this issue’s feature story, Camille’s impact focus is on appropriate medication use and patient safety. For the talent portions of the Miss Virginia and the Miss America 2.0 programs, she executed a science demonstration. She is a passionate advocate for women and STEM in addition to her focus on medication safety. She is just the high-visibility, articulate spokesperson for the profession that we have often been missing.

AACP leaders and staff look forward to seeing you throughout 2020 as we visit your campuses and see you at ours and other organizations’ meetings. We also are fielding surveys of members and nonmembers this quarter to inform the next AACP strategic planning process. I hope you will share your thoughts with us by responding when you receive your survey via email soon.

Sincerely,