January 26, 2019
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2nd International Conference on Pharmaceutical and Biochemical Sciences (IC-PBS) and 1st International Conference of Research on Oncology and Cancer Sciences (IC-ROCS) held on 15-17 January, 2019 in Lahore Pakistan.

Pharmaceutical Review (Staff Reporter). 2nd International Conference on Pharmaceutical and Biochemical Sciences (IC-PBS) and 1st International Conference of Research on Oncology and Cancer Sciences (IC-ROCS) held on 15-17 January, 2019 in Lahore Pakistan. Afterward, the award distribution ceremony for organizers held at in Punjab University College of Pharmacy (PUCP) old campus, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. The event was chaired by dean faculty of pharmacy Prof.Dr Khalid Hussain, Ex PUCP faculty members and teachers. The awards were given to all PUCP organizers and leading Speakers for the successful GRIPS Conferences on Pharmaceutical and Biochemical Sciences and Cancer Sciences. There also launched two research journals. More than 300 participants received Awards and declared the successful initiation of Pakistan Cancer Awareness Program (P-CAP) to save the life of Cancer patients. Prof. Dr. Syed Atif Raza, Prof.Dr. Muhammad Saleem, Prof. Dr. Nawazish-i-Hussain, Dr. Hamid Saeed, Dr. Muhammad Abrar, Dr. Furqan Hashmi, Dr. Rukhsana Anwar, Dr. Nasira Saifu Rehman,Dr. Lubna Shakir, Prof. Dr. Mobasher Ahmad But and Dr.Misbah Sultana, Dr.Taqadus and Dr. Rizwan have participated in this event.

Moreover, approximately 50 posters were presented and displayed in the college corridors. The event was closed with serving the coffee to all participants.

The pictorial review of this event is as under,

 

January 25, 2019
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Br. Arif Ali Arain elected as president of Pharmacist Federation (Pakistan) for upcoming session 2019-20

Pharmaceutical Review (Staff reporter). The Election Commission of Pharmacist Federation (Pakistan) has completed the electoral procedure for the session 2019-20. The Chief Election Commissioner Dr. Saeed Ul Rasheed Nazir B.Pharm., M.Pharm., Ph.D. and secretary Iffat Ullah Aziz Pharm-D, M.Phill have received the opinions from the Executive Members . They have exercised the power conferred in Sub-section-III; clause 11-36 of the constitution of Pharmacist Federation (Pakistan). Thus, in final result, Br. Arif Ali Arain has received the majority and elected as president for aforesaid session.

May Allah bless him courage and strength (Ameen).

 

 

January 21, 2019
by PharmaReviews
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More Pharmacists Move into Medical Practices, More Doctors See Value

By: Fred Gebhart

Just as hospital pharmacists moved out of the basement and into direct patient care in the 1980s and 1990s, outpatient pharmacists are moving out from behind the counter and into medical practices.

“There is a demand for pharmacists from the physician side in ambulatory care,” says Elizabeth Cuevas, MD, director of the Primary Care Transformation for Residency Clinics at Allegheny Health Network, a nonprofit eight-hospital academic medical system with facilities in Western Pennsylvania and Western New York. Allegheny is putting pharmacists into about 250 different practices that are part of its accountable care organization (ACO), a payment model in which the health system receives higher reimbursement if it improves quality and reduces costs.

Related article: Pharmacists Get Involved in Direct Patient Care

“We’ve used our pharmacists for improved medication management, medication reconciliation, patient education and outreach, symptom management, disease management, and making sure patients are actually taking their meds,” says Cuevas. “Pharmacists have a natural role in practices.”

Allegheny isn’t alone in placing pharmacists in physician practices and ambulatory care clinics. Integrated health systems and larger group practices nationwide are moving in the same direction.

In the ideal arrangement, pharmacists are embedded in practices with 5 to 10 physician and nonphysician practitioners, explains John Kennedy, MD, chief medical officer of AMGA, formerly the American Medical Group Association. “For smaller practices or areas that may be more remote, you can use telemedicine or share remote [pharmacist] support as long as you have a shared electronic health record.”

Allegheny is using embedded pharmacists and shared services, depending on the size and location of the practices. Practices with one or two providers usually can’t support a full-time pharmacist, but they can benefit by sharing the services of a pharmacist, according to the health system.

A group of small practices that are relatively close to each other might share a pharmacist who rotates through the different offices, for example. More distant locations might do better with video and data links to a central pharmacist.

Either way, pharmacists are part of the care team and their salaries are covered by the practice. Regardless of the specific arrangement, the goal is the same—to incorporate pharmacists into team-based patient care.

Starting in the Hospital

Allegheny’s decision to put pharmacists on patient care teams can be traced back 30 years, to when inpatient physicians began working with clinical pharmacists. Then, Michael Korczynski, PharmD, BCAP, came on board as manager for Clinical Services, Pharmacy – Ambulatory Care.

“I had come from Kaiser Permanente and the VA, so I was familiar with an autonomous role for pharmacists,” Korczynski says. “But it was a foreign concept here.”

Even so, in the years before Korczynski started at Allegheny, its physicians and pharmacists had built up a strong relationship working together on the inpatient side, he says. “I started an anticoagulation service and working with a primary care practice. Physicians quickly latched onto the new-to-them services.”

Related article: Two Crucial Skills Pharmacists Will Need to Succeed in the Future

Changes in physician education also helped foster physician acceptance of pharmacists on care teams, says Kennedy. Most younger physicians train with pharmacists on inpatient care teams. Once they join a practice, they expect the same access to a medication specialist, he says. Practices and health systems that can offer a pharmacist in the office have a hiring advantage as the physician shortage grows.

What Pharmacists Offer

Putting a pharmacist in the office brings quality and financial advantages, which is critical in value-based reimbursement models, such as Allegheny Health’s ACO.

January 21, 2019
by PharmaReviews
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Pharmacists Help Meet Value-Based Targets

Meeting with healthcare executives

Dated: Sep 24, 2018

The move toward value-based reimbursement can be a plus for health-system pharmacists. Pharmacists can help health systems develop and meet benchmarks and performance targets in accountable care organizations (ACOs), bundled payment models, and other value-based systems.

Related article: Pharmacists Step into Leadership Roles

To help the C-suite recognize their value, pharmacists must show them that pharmacy is a cost saver, says Michael Korczynski, PharmD, BCAP, manager of clinical services, Pharmacy-Ambulatory Care, for Allegheny Health Network in Pittsburgh. “Dispensing medicine is about 1% of my career. I’m a provider of medication management services, educating patients, educating staff, ordering labs, ordering referrals, being a contributor to the development of policy and procedure.”

Grow Awareness

Korczynski is hardly an outlier. Pharmacists nationwide are following examples set by Kaiser Permanente, Geisinger Health System, the VA, and other integrated health systems that rely on pharmacists for comprehensive medication management services.

“These systems are so integrated that physicians and pharmacists work in a shared success model where the number one goal is to focus on the disease state,” says Fred Pane, RPh, senior director for pharmacy at Coordinated Health. “While you are taking cost out of the system by improving medication use and management, you are improving clinical outcomes. That’s what pharmacists can contribute to value-based reimbursement.”

There are two reasons more health systems don’t rely more heavily on pharmacy, says Eric Maroyka, PharmD, director of ASHP’s Center on Pharmacy Practice Advancement. One is some health system leaders don’t recognize the value pharmacists bring. The other is pharmacy managers and directors don’t reach out to executives.

“You have to be proactive,” Maroyka says. “The level and complexity of drug therapy today is such that you cannot manage either outcomes or costs without the assistance of a pharmacist. [ASHP] members are finding success by thinking like the C-suite, learning what is important to them, and weaving a story that resonates around quality, revenue, and spending.”

Act Now

The key step in helping an organization meet value-based targets is getting leadership to buy in. But don’t wait until value-based contracts have been signed.

“You have to have a seat at the table when quality, financial, and clinical are discussing and following up on value-based plans,” says Ashley G. Woodhouse, PharmD, manager of the St. Joseph’s/Candler Centers for Medication Management in Savannah, GA. “You have to know exactly what kind of value-based plans are being considered, the benchmarks being used, and what is not being assessed even if we know it should be.”

Related article: 10 Tips for New Pharmacy Managers

ACOs that track costs using the Medicare Savings Program, for example, are focused on Part B costs. Leaders need and want pharmacy to help manage Part B medications. “What you, in pharmacy, focus on,” Woodhouse says, “depends on the value-based programs your system is involved with.”