[Event Debrief] October 2016: Innovation in Clinical Pharmacy Care

[Event Debrief] October 2016: Innovations in Clinical Pharmacy Care

[This brief was adapted from a post by Ashley Boldin]

To celebrate American Pharmacy Month, we collaborated with startup Medication Health to learn about innovations in clinical pharmacy care. The event included a diverse audience of healthcare startups, physicians, developers, students and other innovators working with health insurance companies and healthcare provider organizations.

Todd Sorensen, PharmD, of the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy and the Alliance for Integrated Medication Management kicked off the event with a primer on medication usage and issues in the United States. Medications are the most commonly used intervention in healthcare. Yet, for every dollar spent on medications, another dollar is spent fixing the issues caused by those medications. Pharmacists are trained to think differently about medications and can serve as a vital resource for improving the medication experience – both for consumers and other healthcare providers.

Monica Brands, RPh, of Cub Pharmacy introduced attendees to the role that community pharmacists play in bringing clinical pharmacy services to the public. Community pharmacists can provide a range of services including immunization administration, health screenings, medication checkups, and most importantly take the time to ask patients how they are doing.

Allyson Schlichte, PharmD, followed with a day in the life of a pharmacist practicing in a clinic setting. Allyson practices in a dedicated patient care role and provided excellent examples of the ways that pharmacists add value beyond medication adherence’s concern of whether someone has simply “taken a medication.”

Dan Rehrauer, PharmD, of HealthPartners highlighted the benefits of HealthPartner’s pharmacist home visit program. Through this innovative program, pharmacists have been able to help reduce hospital readmissions while adding value and working collaboratively with other nursing and home health professionals.

Marsha Millonig, RPh, of the Minnesota Pharmacists Association provided some ‘food for thought’ including the fact that many consumers know the name of their pet’s veterinarian and their hair stylist, but not the name of their pharmacist.

The first five speakers provided the context that set up Medication Health’s solution perfectly.

Ashley Boldin, CPhT, of Medication Health, closed out the event with a look at the ways technology can be used to help educate the public about clinical pharmacy services and connect consumers with clinical pharmacists. Medication Health is a digital health startup that aims to make healthcare better and less expensive by using insights and technology to connect pharmacists, consumers, physicians, insurers and public health. They are working to bring MyMedicationHealth to market in early 2017.

Audience feedback was overwhelmingly positive. All event attendees indicated that they learned something new about pharmacists. Many were surprised to learn about pharmacists’ roles in patient care despite the majority of attendees working in the healthcare industry.

Thanks to Worrell for graciously hosting us in their space!