WASHINGTON, DC – The American Pharmacists Association (APhA) and MediMergent today announced a partnership to develop and implement a national medication safety training program for pharmacists and their staff. The program will support the National Medication Safety Outcomes and Adherence Program (NMSOAP), established by MediMergent, under a research collaboration agreement with the Center for Drug Evaluation Research (CDER) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). 

NMSOAP, a partnership among patients, providers, payers, regulators and pharmacists to collect near real-time data on patient safety, health outcomes and medication adherence will enhance medication safety through the direct pharmacy collection of data related to newly approved and marketed drugs. Participating pharmacies will recruit, obtain consent for study enrollment and coach patients in the benefits and outcomes of NMSOAP. Data obtained directly from patients will be collected in accordance with patient information security standards (HIPPA) and will be integrated with patient medical records and other health care activities.

APhA CEO & Executive Vice President, Thomas E. Menighan, commented, “Pharmacists play an integral role in coaching patients about safe and effective medication use. As an accessible and knowledgeable resource for medication questions, they are optimally positioned to ensure good data are collected on medication use, adverse effects and outcomes from patient treatments.”

Kenneth M. Borow, MD, President and Chief Medical Officer for MediMergent stated, “MediMergent is looking forward to working closely with APhA on the NMSOAP to establish a highly fruitful relationship with the pharmacist community. We strongly support APhA’s leadership role in the development and conduct of NMSOAP-directed training programs for pharmacists and their staff, consulting on program design and roll out of NMSOAP in pharmacies, and assisting with ongoing real-world market research. Ultimately, it is expected that the local pharmacist will be an integral contributor to NMSOAP’s efforts to empower patients to better know and understand their medications leading to improved drug adherence and persistence, safety, and clinical outcomes. APhA’s extensive reach through its websites, print publications, e-newsletters, social media, and forums will help the NMSOAP message to gain traction across the broad healthcare community.”

About the American Pharmacists Association
The American Pharmacists Association, founded in 1852 as the American Pharmaceutical Association, is a 501 (c)(6) organization, representing more than 62,000 practicing pharmacists, pharmaceutical scientists, student pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and others interested in advancing the profession. APhA, dedicated to helping all pharmacists improve medication use and advance patient care, is the first-established and largest association of pharmacists in the United States. For more information, please visit www.pharmacist.com.

About MediMergent, LLC
MediMergent, LLC is a data collection, integration and analytics company. It is building digital platforms that will integrate patient directed information from multiple modalities including smart phones, tablets, call centers, pharmacy-based kiosk devices, interactive voice recognition technologies as well as a number of mobile diagnostic applications. Under a Research Collaboration Agreement with the Center for Drug Evaluation Research (CDER) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), MediMergent established the National Medication Safety, Outcomes and Adherence Program (NMSOAP) to longitudinally assess safety, outcomes, and medication adherence using an innovative, prospective, evaluative approach towards recently approved drugs under real-world conditions. The result will be the ability to collect health information directly in the “Voice of the Patient” without third party interpretation. This information will be integrated with other sources of patient information (e.g., electronic medical records and claims data) to create databases of real-world safety, clinical outcomes, medication adherence, REMS and comparative effectiveness data.