The American Pharmacists Association (APhA) Annual Meeting and Exposition, APhA2016, held March 4-7, hosted nearly 6,000 pharmacists and student pharmacists in Baltimore, MD. Attendees heard from thought-leaders about a wide range of changes, challenges and opportunities within the profession including the need for recognition of pharmacists as providers, Zika Virus education and the role of pharmacists in preventing opioid abuse and misuse. APhA2016 shared key information and resources to help practitioners and student pharmacists strengthen their role as patient care providers.

This year’s theme, Expanding Opportunities through Patient Care, explored the evolving roles of pharmacists in health care. Pharmacists heard about their unique skills and knowledge and how they can expand collaboration with patient care teams to improve health outcomes. APhA2016 speakers drove home the theme that pharmacists are pivotal for improving medication use and advancing health care.

“It’s been an amazing year working with key decision makers,” said APhA President Lawrence “LB” Brown, PharmD, PhD, FAPhA. “Pharmacists are on fire!” Brown said medical and nursing professionals increasingly embrace pharmacists as an integral part of the health care team. He discussed instances that demonstrated policymakers and payers understanding of pharmacists’ value. Brown cited the example of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service announcement of the Part D Enhanced Medication Therapy Management model.

Noted nephrologist and keynote speaker Rajiv Shah, MD, told a packed audience at the Opening General Session that he learned about the value of pharmacists early on in his career. Shah said when he was a resident it was the pharmacist who knew every patient’s lab results and medications.  Now, when addressing complex medication dosing and intensive regimens for kidney disease and transplant patients, he credits much success to the “doctors on the bench” that he collaborates with.

“Pharmacists’ expertise matters because the biggest fixable problem today in health care, one that amounts to $300 billion, is medication non-adherence,” Shah explained. “No one in the world has as much medication education as pharmacists.”

At APhA2016’s Second General Session, speakers focused on opportunities pharmacists have to be seen as thought leaders. “Your touch is essential in making the connection between patient and caregiver,” said APhA Executive Vice President and CEO Thomas E. Menighan, BSPharm, MBA, ScD (Hon), FAPhA. “For many years, pharmacists have been knocking down barriers to patient care services. Twenty years ago, no one would have imagined that today, more than 280,000 pharmacists would be trained immunizers. And the opportunities before pharmacists to deliver patient care services are only growing.”

Best-selling author Abraham Verghese told attendees that despite technology, health care professionals should not get too far away from one-on-one interactions. “We are in a profession that has at its core human relationships,” he said.

APhA President-elect Kelly Goode, PharmD, BCPS, FAPhA, FCCP, talked about how pharmacists are serving their communities. She urged listeners to adopt the term “community-based pharmacist practitioner” to describe the patient care services pharmacists provide in their communities. Goode encouraged the audience to find new ways to enhance patient interactions and to share their stories to the larger pharmacy community via APhA’s Engage (#aphaengage)

More than 300 delegates deliberated reviewed and approved recommendations proposed by the APhA Policy Review Committee. They deliberated on the APhA Policy Committee’s Report which focused on:

• biologic, biosimilar, and interchangeable biologic drug products;
•  point-of-care testing; and
• medication optimization services within the patient care process.

For more information on the deliberations, visit http://pharmacist.com/house-of-delegates.

APhA has already begun preparations for APhA2017, Making an Impact in Patient Care, March 24-27, in San Francisco. For information on APhA2017, contact APhA staff or visit www.aphameeting.org.