Support Systems

“I’m very proud that we also fund AACP’s Scholarship of Teaching and Learning award, focusing attention on an area that is underfunded and under-researched, how we teach, what works best,” Woods said. “We have been funding that award for four years now and it’s incredible. A lot of research has been done in interprofessional education, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Anti-racism research and how it’s taught.” One study engaged student pharmacists in social determinants of health through Photovoice, a piece of software used to compel social action. Another study, focused on creating an inclusive climate within pharmacy practice, looked at perceptions and exposure and how they influence pharmacists as they join the workforce. Another looked at interprofessional simulations on emergency response. Some of these studies, Woods believes, have really moved the needle, because now schools are considering interprofessional competencies and not training students in the isolation of their profession.

Passionate about practice transformation, Woods sees AACP’s new Transformation Center as an important development and indicated that AFPE may sponsor some travel awards to support its goal. “It’s such an important area that has been developed a little bit in the other professions, but not to the level that pharmacy is going to do it,” she said.

She’s also excited about the Pharmacy Opportunity Network (PharmON), a collaborative effort among AACP, AFPE and the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) that she helped visualize. “The diversity of occupations is far greater than what someone who goes into the profession thinks they can do. I remember looking at my LinkedIn account and thinking, ‘Huh, she works for Mary Kay cosmetics, that’s an odd job with that training. Then I realize she’s a scientist for them. You wouldn’t think about the whole cosmeceutical area, and there are a whole lot of areas, the supply chain, it just goes on and on where the training is so valuable but the network of connections wasn’t there,” Woods said. “We even have pharmacists who advise venture capital companies…so it’s just the application of this wonderful training, it’s underutilized and there’s a variety of careers where they can really shine.” PharmON intends to connect pharmacists, practicing and aspiring to such opportunities.

AFPE’s board, 62 experts at the top of their fields, review applicants and each year Woods said those experts are awed and impressed by the quality of work that comes out of pharmacy schools. AFPE’s work is to uphold such aims as interprofessional education and practice transformation. “We are a great resource because we are small enough and nimble enough, but have existed for nearly 80 years, so we have an opportunity to be able to change and address really important issues,” she noted. “It does not take a long time for us to pivot to an area where we see need. We even have companies come to us for specialized research and say, ‘We’re looking for research in this particular area. Can you identify the top schools that do work in these areas?’ They provide funding for the research, and it’s been wonderful because they would not know where to go, but we do because we see what comes out of the schools. They apply to us all the time, so we see the bodies of work that they are doing, which is far beyond what anybody would imagine.”

Funding Researchers at Pivotal Stages

The PhRMA Foundation supports researchers on the frontiers of biomedical innovation and values scientific independence and data-driven decision making, enabling young scientists, empowering patients and encouraging collaboration. “We fund pre-docs, post-docs and early career scientists. We fund them because these are critical junctures in an academic’s life,” said Dr. Amy M. Miller, president of the PhRMA Foundation. “We hope that our work increases the capacity of academic labs to do their research. We want to fund researchers to train the new generation of practitioners, we want to train researchers who can be external partners to therapeutic manufacturers, and we want to fund the researchers who are providing that pipeline of talent to the industry.”

The PhRMA Foundation funds research in four buckets: drug discovery, drug delivery, translational medicine and health outcomes and value assessment. One research project from that fourth bucket, “Family Matters: Expanding the economic value paradigm for precision medicine diagnostics to include the costs and health consequences of family members,” awarded to Dr. Wendy Ungar, senior scientist, child health evaluative sciences, at Sick Kids, Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, focuses on patient centeredness and innovations in personalized medicine. This is one of Miller’s favorite topics, as she worked as executive vice president at the Personalized Medicine Coalition for a decade. “This particular project is exciting because it is looking at germline diagnostics for the possibility of health consequences in family members. We see this in some areas like Lynch syndrome, but it’s not primary care yet, though it is incredibly significant,” Miller said. “For a long time, just getting doctors to order these tests was a challenge, and I find it absolutely fascinating that we are now getting to the pharmacoeconomics of testing because that has not been closely examined before.”

The PhRMA Foundation also advances scientific research by supporting student pharmacists exploring the discovery and delivery of targeted therapeutics ranging from cardiovascular medicines to cancer treatments. “By intention, we have a pretty broad call for our research awards because our desire is to fund those frontiers and if we’re too prescriptive, we’re not going to reach those frontiers,” Miller pointed out.

When she stepped into her new role as president less than a year ago, Miller was unaware of the breadth and depth of what pharmacy schools did. “I am impressed that they are involved in drug delivery programs within academia and industry. I am impressed that they are involved in translational medicine, looking at that bedside issue and bringing it back into the research clinic to figure out solutions that matter to patients immediately, and making sure that the best options for patients are available to them and affordable for them,” she said.

The PhRMA Foundation supports about 40 researchers every year, and Miller estimated that a handful are usually Pharm.D.s. Miller would like to see more student pharmacists apply for PhRMA grants because she would like to see the geographic diversity of pharmacy schools represented. She added, “Apply! I can’t fund you if you don’t apply.”

Looking ahead, Miller wants her foundation to help train all its funded scientists to speak about their science, giving them tools and opportunities to explain their research in lay terms. She also aims to capture its alumni group, more than 2,500 strong, and partner on career opportunities and mentor matching. She would like the foundation to harness all the pipeline programs of its supporters and connect them to former awardees, current awardees and applicants whom the foundation was not able to fund but found promising.

Turning Research into Practice

The Community Pharmacy Foundation (CPF) provides resources for research and development that encourage new opportunities, innovation and capabilities in community pharmacy practice, awarding grants to pharmacists exploring new horizons in the community pharmacy realm. The mission to support and advance community pharmacy practice is what CPF was established to do. CPF seeks to be a catalyst for community pharmacists to engage in patient-centered collaborative care, resulting in a healthier population that values the pharmacist as an essential healthcare team member.

“We have a lot of academicians who are working with community pharmacists to do research and explore some of those innovations in community pharmacy practice, and they have been great partners for us,” said Dr. Kelly Brock, CPF executive director. “That team of an academician and community pharmacist working together on an idea has been a really strong approach.” A recent grant from CPF supported the establishment of the Academia-CPESN Transformation Collaborative. The ACT Pharmacy Collaborative is a partnership between colleges/schools of pharmacy and clinically integrated networks of community-based pharmacies focused on uniting and mobilizing stakeholders and resources to support and facilitate the transformation of community pharmacy practice. There are currently 96 pharmacy schools that have joined the ACT Pharmacy Collaborative. Many of those are also involved with Flip the Pharmacy (FtP), a multiyear practice transformation initiative that aims to "flip" community-based pharmacies away from point-in-time, prescription-level care processes and business models to longitudinal and patient-level care processes through the use of hands-on coaching. Many of the FtP practice transformation coaches are affiliated with colleges of pharmacy. CPF was the founding sponsor of FtP. We will continue to fund ideas that we think will truly advance community pharmacy practice.

In addition to the ACT Pharmacy Collaborative and FtP, Brock said CPF has funded a lot of great ideas in the past 20 years and feels they have a “vault of gold” with all the resources from previous grants. All of the awarded grants can be found on the CPF website. Each completed grant provides a grant synopsis and some sort of deliverable. “Depending on the grant, it may be a toolkit, manuscript, infographic, but it’s something that we feel will be valuable to community pharmacy teams that are trying to establish enhanced services in their practices,” Brock said. “We make these deliverables readily available—that’s one of our key features—because we want this information to be accessible to anyone and everyone out there in community pharmacy practice.”

CPF is always looking for the next great idea to advance community pharmacy practice and continues to ask the important questions, Brock noted. “How do we sustain these programs beyond grant funding and how do we scale these programs and really help transform practice across the country so that these ideas that impact patient care can start happening in more places?”

Since joining CPF eight months ago, Brock has been working to increase CPF’s visibility to help community pharmacists reap the rewards of its research. “The intention has always been that CPF funds these projects and the deliverables that come out of them are freely accessible to anybody. CPF does that on purpose so that there are no barriers,” Brock said. “Any pharmacist can come to the CPF website and find resources they can utilize to make their practice better. CPF will always fund innovation. That’s our legacy, that’s who we are as a foundation and that’s who we will continue to be. We will continue to fund ideas that we think will truly advance community pharmacy practice.”

By increasing the visibility of past CPF research and continuing to fund innovative projects, Brock hopes more pharmacies will start building new programs, transforming what community pharmacy looks like across the country so that when a patient goes into a pharmacy, they can expect a high level of care and receive enhanced services from their pharmacist. “I believe the research and innovation supported by CPF will continue to prove that community pharmacists impact patient outcomes in a positive way,” Brock said. “Hopefully this will help demonstrate the value pharmacists bring to patient care and pharmacists will be recognized and compensated for the value they bring to the patients they serve every day in their communities.”

Athena Ponushis is a freelance writer based in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.